^  PRINCETON,  N.  J.  ^* 


Presented  by  Mrs.  Sanford  H.  Smith. 

Division        JD  S  2  ^  3  I 
■Secfi.m         ,  /A   2  I 
Nttmher 


^ 


6. 


"^  ^- 


CHRIST  A  FRIEND : 


THIRTEEN      DISCOURSES, 


/ 

NEHEMIAH    ADAMS,    D.  D., 

PASTOR     OF    THE    ESSEX     STREET     CHURCH,     BOSTON. 


THIRD    EDITION. 


BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED    BY    JOHN    P.   JEWETT    &    CO. 

CLEVELAND,   OHIO:    JEWETT,   PROCTOR,   &    WORTHINGTON. 
NEW  YORK:    SHELDON,  LAMPORT,  &  BLAKEMAN. 

1856. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  m  the  year  1854,  by 

N.  ADAMS. 

Fn  the  Clerk's  Otrice  of  tlie  District  Court  of  the  District  of  .Massachusetts. 


STEREOTYPED    AT    THE 
BOSTON      STEREOTYPE      FOUNDRY. 


■^■^.. 


NOTE. 

These  Discourses  are  intended  by  the  author  as  a  coun- 
terpart to  his  volume,  "  The  Friends  of  Christ  in  the  New 
Testament."  There,  the  Saviour  was  seen  befriended  ;  here, 
we  see  him  as  a  Friend. 

(3) 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 


BBBMON 

I.    BEHOLD  HOW  HE  LOVED  HIM 7 

II.    THE  CALL  OF  MATTHEW 35 

III.  THE  WIDOW  OF  NAIN  AJ^D  HER  SON,      ....  54 

IV.  CONVERSION  OF  ZACCHEUS 74 

V.    WHO  TOUCHED  ME? 96 

VI.    THOMAS, 116 

->   Vn.    PETER  ON  THE  WAVES, 143 

VIII.    NATHANAEL, 165 

IX.    THE  FRIEND  OF  SEAMEN 183 

X.    JOHN, 206 

XI.  THOU  SHALT  NEVER  WASH  MY  FEET,     .        .        .        .227 

XII.    PAUL 245 

XIII.    STEPHEN, 262 

(5) 


SERMON  I. 


BEHOLD  HOW  HE   LOVED  HIM. 


JOHN  XL  36. 

THEN   SAID   THE  JEWS,   BEHOLD   HO"W  HE  LOVED    HIM. 

We  cannot  draw  the  line  between  those  parts  of 
our  Saviour's  conduct  nor  among  those  feelings  which 
proceeded,  respectively,  from  his  divine  and  human 
natures.  It  is  not  intended  that  we  should  do  so. 
The  Saviour's  own  manner  of  speaking  concerning 
himself  is  a  safe  and  sufficient  guide  in  speaking  of 
him.  Without  explanation  or  hesitation  he  says 
things  of  himself  which  can  be  true  of  only  one  of 
his  natures.  "  What  and  if  ye  shall  see  the  Son  of 
man  ascend  up  where  he  was  before  1 "  "  No  man 
hath  ascended  into  heaven  but  he  which  came  down 
from  heaven,  even  the  Son  of  man,  which  is  in  heav- 
en." "Before  Abraham  was,  I  am."  "And  now, 
0  Father,  glorify  thou  me  with  the  glory  which  I  had 
with  thee  before  the  world  was."  The  Bible  leads  us 
to  think  and  speak  of  him  at  the  same  moment  as 

(7) 


8  INTRODUCTORY  SERMON. 

creating  the  world,  laid  in  a  manger ;  upholding  all 
things  by  the  word  of  his  power,  and  a  man  of  sor- 
rows ;  every  where  present  and  searching  the  heart, 
disappointed  under  a  barren  fig  tree,  ignorant  of  cer- 
tain times ;  tempted  of  the  devil,  yet  terrifying  a  le- 
gion of  devils  by  his  approach ;  on  a  cross  and  on  a 
great  white  throne,  the  Resurrection  and  the  Life,  yet 
dying  between  two  thieves  ;  sent  a  prisoner  from  Pi- 
late to  Herod  and  from  Herod  to  Pilate,  then  sitting 
with  the  whole  human  race  at  his  tribunal.  We  no 
more  feel  that  there  is  inconsistency  in  these  several 
representations  than  in  singing  at  the  same  hour  of 
public  worship  a  psalm  respecting  the  vanity  of  man 
as  mortal,  and  dying  Galileo's  exulting  apostrophe 
and  farewell  to  the  "  golden  lamps  of  heaven." 

It  is  the  perfectness  of  just  conceptions  and  feelings 
respecting  Christ  to  think  and  speak  of  him  thus  pro- 
miscuously as  God  and  man,  without  misgiving ;  to 
address  him  in  a  way  which  is  really  inconsistent  with 
one  of  his  natures ;  at  Bethlehem  to  join  with  angels 
adoring  him  in  his  slumber,  and  then,  with  saints  and 
angels  in  heaven  proceeding  to  his  feet  with  their 
crowns,  to  say,  "  Thou  art  worthy,  for  thou  wast 
slain." 

If  we  do  not  tjius  regard  Christ,  we  shall  be  tried 
with  cold,  speculative  efforts  to  fix  the  right  proportion 
between  the  divine  and  human  in  his  feelings  and  ac- 
tions ;  and  thus  he  will  be  to  us  a  difficult  and  repul- 


BEHOLD  HOW  HE  LOVED  HIM.  \) 

sive  formula,  a  problem  never  solved,  rather  than  an 
object  of  love.  As  well  might  we  try  to  discriminate 
between  the  feelings  which  have  their  origin  in  our 
mortal  and  immortal  natures.  It  is  interesting  to 
know,  that  of  the  great  numbers  who  have  been  per- 
plexed with  regard  to  the  union  of  two  natures  in 
Christ,  and  have  at  last  become  the  worshipers  of 
Immanuel,  God  with  us,  no_one  ever  solved  the  mys- 
tery in  the  divine  nature  to  his  own  satisfaction,  but 
simply  received  Christ  as  he  is  represented  in  the 
Bible,  at  once  God  and  man  ;  and  as  there  is  no  con- 
fusion in  the  scriptural  representations  of  Christ  by 
reason  of  his  two  natures,  so  there  proves  to  be  none 
in  the  feelings  of  those  who  believe  in  him,  not  spec- 
ulatively, but  with  the  heart,  and  "  to  the  saving  of 
the  soul." 

Instead  of  its  being  an  objection  to  these  views 
respecting  Christ  that  we  attribute  some  things  to  his 
human  nature  and  other  things  to  his  divine  nature, 
—  an  objection  which  lies  equally  against  the  way  in 
which  we  speak  of  ourselves,  —  we  say  that  a  Saviour 
in  whom  such  things  coexist,  combining  our  nature 
with  deity,  in  his  person,  is  so  perfectly  adapted  to 
our  wants,  it  is  so  much  to  be  desired,  that  should  the 
theory  of  such  a  combination  have  been  presented  to 
us  beforehand,  we  should  all  have  said.  Were  this 
possible,  what  a  provision  it  would  be  for  the  highest 
interests  and  happiness  of  man!     We  find  such  a 


10  INTRODUCTORY  SERMON. 

Saviour  in  Christ.  He  comes  to  the  relief  of  our 
weak  nature,  which,  in  every  age  of  the  world,  has 
sought  for  incarnations  of  the  Supreme  Being.  Christ 
fulfills  all  those  desires,  as  he  also  does  the  types  of 
the  Old  Testament.  Among  the  unsearchable  riches 
which  are  said  to  be  in  him,  not  the  least  are  his  hu- 
man qualities ;  for  without  them  it  is  obvious  that 
the  practical  value  of  his  incarnation  would  cease. 
"We  love  to  think  of  him  as  a  dependent  man,  a  pray- 
ing man,  a  tempted  man,  a  man  of  sorrows ;  and  to 
know  that  deity  within  him  does  not  absorb  his  hu- 
man nature  into  itself,  but  leaves  it  original  and  entire. 
The  laws  of  the  double  consciousness  which  there  must 
be  in  him  we  may  with  due  humility  abstain  from  ex- 
ploring, at  least  till  we  have  understood  the  mystery  of 
the  union  in  ourselves  of  mind  with  matter.  "  With- 
out controversy,  great  is  the  mystery  of  godliness, 
God  manifest  in  the  flesh." 

It  is  a  beautiful  feature  in  his  character  as  Redeem- 
er that  Christ  presents  himself  to  us  in  ways  which 
interest  all  our  feelings ;  not  standing  before  us  as  a 
mere  representation  of  the  divine  government  with 
the  articles  of  agreement  and  the  price  of  our  ransom 
in  his  hands,  but  commending  himself  to  our  inmost 
souls  as  one  whom  we  can  greatly  love  because  we 
perceive  in  him  every  emotion,  pure  and  exalted,  that 
pertains  to  our  nature.  We  are  permitted  to  love  him 
even  in  the  cradle.     We  follow  him  through  every 


BEHOLD  HOW  HE  LOVED  HIM.         '  11 

stage  of  human  life  to  manhood,  and  think  that  he 
was  once  just  as  old,  to  a  day,  as  each  child  of  the 
family  and  congregation,  and  that  he  knows  every 
thing  peculiar  to  that  age  and  state.  Though  God 
and  Lord  of  angels,  who  received  command,  at  his  en- 
trance into  the  world,  to  worship  him,  yet  the  sisters 
of  a  deceased  and  buried  friend  were  not  so  impas- 
sioned in  their  sorrow  on  approaching  the  grave  as 
he  ;  for  the  depth  and  sincerity  of  his  grief  so  plainly 
marked  him  as  chief  mourner,  and  produced  the  im- 
pression that  he  was  more  than  a  common  friend,  that 
the  spectators  at  the  grave,  who  thought  of  him  only 
as  a  man,  and  as  one  of  the  mourners,  said,  "  Behold 
how  he  loved  him  !" 

He  is  not  only  our  Redeemer  from  the  curse  of  the 
law,  our  Lord  and  Master,  our  final  Judge ;  he  is  our 
personal  Friend.  These  discourses  will  present  him 
to  us  as  a  Friend  to  various  individuals  whose  circum- 
stances, it  will  be  found,  comprise  the  large  compass 
of  human  wants  and  woes. 

We  will  now  consider  his  character  as  a  Friend  in 
one  full  view,  and  in  the  discourses  following,  dwell 
upon  the  particular  illustrations  of  it  in  his  life. 

Christ  knows  all  our  circumstances  and  feelings. 
When  we  spread  before  him  the  circumstances  in 
which  we  are  placed,  he  sees  relations  of  things  which 


12  INTRODUCTORY  SERMON. 

we  can  not  perceive.  Want  of  knowledge  is  a  great 
impediment  with  our  friends.  They  can  only  confess 
their  ignorance,  and  their  consequent  inability  to  help 
us  ;  the  expression  of  sympathy  is  then  the  only  com- 
fort which  they  can  afford.  We  go  to  our  heavenly 
Friend,  and  find  one  who  compasses  our  path  and  our 
lying  down,  and  is  acquainted  with  all  our  ways. 
When  we  begin  to  speak  to  him,  we  can  say,  Lord, 
thou  knowest  all  things,  past,  present,  and  to  come. 
We  are  not  troubled  to  obtain  information  to  lay  be- 
fore him,  as  before  other  friends,  nor,  having  obtained 
it,  to  make  an  exact  representation  of  it  to  guard 
against  misconception  ;  but  omitting  all  this,  we  can 
say,  O  thou  omniscient  Saviour  and  Friend,  all  these 
things  are  naked  and  open  to  thine  eye.  What  wilt 
thou  have  me  to  dol 

And  still  at  other  times  we  find  ourselves  making 
statements  and  explanations,  reasoning  and  remon- 
strating, complaining  and  urging,  confessing  that  we 
had  kept  a  secret  from  him,  bringing  new  arguments, 
and  new  thoughts  and  feelings,  as  David  says,  "I 
poured  out  my  complaint ;  I  showed  before  him  my 
trouble." 

But  Christ  has  knowledge  which  extends  beyond 
a  mere  acquaintance  with  circumstances.  He  knows 
our  most  secret  thoughts  and  wishes ;  the  rising  de- 
sire, the  unformed  thought,  the  secret  fear,  the  del- 
icacies and  difficulties  of   our  situations ;    these  he 


BEHOLD   HOW  HE  LOVED  HIM.  13 

thoroughly  knows  and  appreciates.  We  can  express 
feelings  and  wishes  to  him  which  we  would  not  dare 
utter  in  the  ear  of  a  fellow-creature,  nor  by  any  means 
be  willing  that  he  should  suspect.  Moreover,  we  fre- 
quently fail  to  find  words  with  which  to  convey  cer- 
tain feelings ;  then  we  are  misunderstood,  and  are 
pained  to  see  that  our  meaning  is  not  received ;  or 
we  are  in  doubt  whether  we  have  given  a  just  im- 
pression. How  is  it  in  our  intercourse  with  Christ  ? 
No  labored  utterance  is  necessary  to  make  him  un- 
derstand things  w^hich  friends  can  not  comprehend. 
A  very  few  words,  confused,  it  may  be,  with  sighs 
and  groans,  are  employed  to  express  ourselves,  be- 
cause we  are  as  much  impressed  with  his  perfect 
knowledge  as  with  our  trouble. 

It  is  an  illustration  of  the  human  method  in  which 
we  are  encouraged  to  speak  of  Christ,  and  a  further 
qualification  in  him  to  be  a  friend,  that  — 

The  Saviour  has  manifested  the  most  affectionate 
feelings. 

There  never  was  such  a  heart  as  we  find  in  Jesus 
Christ.  No  father,  mother,  husband,  wife,  sister, 
child,  or  lover  can  compare  with  him  in  his  dispo- 
sition and  power  to  love.  It  was  the  great  love 
wherewith  he  loved  us  that  made  him  a  Saviour ;  so 
that  the  Apostle  speaks  of  it  as  a  "  breadth,  and 
length,   and   depth,   and   height,"   adding,    "and   to 


14  INTRODUCTORY  SERMON. 

know   the    love   of    Christ,   which    passeth    knowl- 
edge." 

This  love  is  not  a  passionate,  impulsive  feeling ; 
nor  is  it,  like  human  love,  influenced  by  fancy ;  nor 
is  it  variable.  It  is  not  selfish.  There  are  no  private 
ends  to  be  gained  by  it.  He  loves  because  it  is  his  na- 
ture to  love.  Nor  is  it  fastidious.  Infirmities  and 
disagreeable  peculiarities,  which  repel  others,  no  more 
alienate  the  Saviour  from  us,  if  we  are  sincerely  pious, 
than  the  wounds  or  deformities,  the  sightless  eyes,  or 
wasted  face  of  her  child  alienate  a  mother's  feelings. 
It  is  impossible  for  us  to  suit  the  taste  or  fancy  of 
many ;  nor  does  any  one  enjoy  peculiar  intimacy  with 
a  large  number.  Our  Saviour  sees  in  every  one  of  us 
that  which  inspires  him  with  affection.  If  our  heart 
condemn  us,  he  is  greater  than  our  heart,  and  know- 
eth  all  things,  and  among  them  not  only  sins  which 
we  forget,  but  sincerity,  and  true  desires,  and  godly 
sorrows  which  we  have  overlooked  or  underrated.  If 
God  is  love,  —  God,  the  holy,  just,  sin-hating  God,  the 
Avenger,  the  Judge,  —  if  all  those  attributes  in  him 
which  strike  terror  into  the  wicked  heart  do  not 
overpower  this  prevailing  element  of  the  divine  nature, 
—  what  must  Christ  be,  who  is  the  exponent  of  the 
love  of  God !  He  has,  indeed,  the  other  attributes  of 
Godhead,  "  for  in  him  dwelleth  all  the  fullness  of  the 
Godhead  bodily ;  "  but  he  is  intended  to  be  the  ex- 
pression of  divine  love  to  man.     In  accordance  with 


BEHOLD  HOW  HE  LOVED  HIM.  15 

this  he  says,  "  I  came  not  to  judge  the  world,  but  to 
save  the  world."  "  Love  divine,  all  love  excelling,"  is 
his  chief  characteristic. 

Christ  has  had  great  experience  as  a  Friend. 

It  is  proper  to  speak  of  experience  on  the  part  of 
Christ ;  and  here  is  another  illustration  of  the  human 
ways  in  which  we  may  think  of  him.  He  "  grew  in 
wisdom  "  when  he  was  young.  As  man,  he  had  never 
been  in  heaven,  though  he  spake  of  himself  as  the 
Son  of  man,  "  which  came  down  from  heaven,  and  is 
in  heaven."  This  illustrates  his  capacity  as  man  for 
progressive  experience. 

As  he  is  said  to  be  the  Lamb  slain  from  the  foun- 
dation of  the  world,  his  atonement  being  anticipated, 
and  the  government  of  the  world  proceeding  with  this 
in  view,  so  we  may  say  that  Christ  has  always  been 
in  our  world,  making  friends  and  loving  them.  Abra- 
ham saw  his  day  and  was  glad,  which  implies  that  he 
loved  Christ.  Though  born  in  Bethlehem  Ephratah, 
his  goings  forth  had  been  of  old,  from  everlasting. 
When  it  is  said  the  testimony  of  Jesus  is  the  spirit  of 
prophecy,  the  meaning  is,  the  very  spirit  of  the  in- 
spired prophetic  writings  is  testimony  concerning  Je- 
sus. He  was  Jacob's  friend.  Micah  says  that  it  was 
the  angel  of  the  covenant,  or  Messiah,  whom  Jacob 
"  found  in  Bethel."  We  believe  that  Joshua  saw  him 
at  the  opening  conquest  of  Canaan,  with  a  drawn 


16  INTRODUCTORY  SERMON. 

sword  in  his  hand,  saying,  for  the  encouragement  of 
Israel  and  her  leader,  "  As  captain  of  the  liost  of  the 
Lord  am  I  now  come,"  and  then  directing  Joshua,  as 
none  but  God  ever  did,  to  loose  his  shoes  from  off  his 
feet.  But  we  shall  quote  too  largely  from  the  Old 
Testament  histoiy  if  we  dwell  on  this  theme. 

Christ  will  continue  to  have  new  friends  and  new 
friendships  while  the  world  stands ;  and  as  heretofore, 
so  hereafter,  he  will  always  have  affections  varying 
with  the  particular  objects  of  his  love.  Suppose  that 
you  should  to-day  enter  into  friendship  with  Christ. 
He  would  perceive  in  you  a  new  object  of  love,  and 
would  have  feelings  toward  you  which  have  never 
been  excited  toward  any  one  else.  We  see  this  illus- 
trated in  parents  of  large  families,  each  child  ex- 
citing a  love  peculiar  to  itself  As  your  face  appear- 
ing for  the  first  time  at  the  Lord's  table  differs  from 
every  other,  as  your  signature  appended  to  the  articles 
and  covenant  of  the  church  is  unlike  the  hundreds 
of  handwritings  on  that  most  interesting  record,  so 
the  Saviour's  love  to  you  will  have  in  it  something  per- 
sonal and  special.  What  experience,  then,  Christ  has 
had,  and  will  have,  as  a  friend  !  Besides,  Christ  loves 
every  Christian  friend  of  yours,  as  really  as  he  loves 
you ;  he  is  therefore  interested  in  your  friendships  i 
and  attachments,  and  from  his  large  experience  as  a' 
friend  he  knows  the  things  which  will  make  you 
perfectly  happy. 


BEHOLD  HOW  HE  LOVED  HIM.  17 

Christ  has  j^cissed  through  great  afflictions. 

In  such  a  world  as  this,  an  angel  would  be  an  un- 
suitable  companion   and   intimate   friend.     His  face 
would  be  too  bright  at  times  when  we  needed  him  to 
pity  us ;  there  would  be  no  minor  key  in  his  feelings, 
for  what  has  he  ever  known  of  sorrow  ?    He  would 
tell  us  how  well  he  supposes  he  could  bear  pain  if  he 
were  in  our  place ;  he  would  rejoice  when  it  was  a 
time  to  weep,  for  he  would  look  too  exclusively  on 
the  bright  side  of  events,  and  that  would  not  cor- 
respond with  our  disciplinary  state.     But  after  all,  he 
who  has  had  experience  of  great  and  sore  trials,  and 
has  borne  them  well,  is  by  far  the  most  cheerful  com- 
panion to  a  sorrowing  heart.     Having  sounded  the  \ 
depths  of  affliction,  he  can  best  guide  his  friend  in 
them.     Desponding  Christian  in  the  Kiver  of  Death  j 
said  to  Hopeful,  "  I  sink  in  deep  waters,  the  billows 
go  over  my  head,  all  his  waves  go  over  me."     Hope- 
ful said,  "  Be  of  good  cheer,  my  brother ;  I  feel  the    \ 
bottom,  and  it  is  good."    Having  been  partaker  of  the    1 
affliction  and  of  the  consolation,  such  a  one  can  bring 
a  smile  of  peace,  and  even  of  joy,  upon  a  care-worn  face,    / 
when  prosperous  friends  only  deepen  the  gloom  and 
the  sighs  by  their  inexperienced  songs  to  heavy  hearts. 
Let  the  angel  of  the  Lord  encamp  around  me  to  de- 
liver me,  but  give  me  the  man  of  sorrows  for  my      i 
friend.      I   want    a   friend  who   has   been    stricken, 
smitten  of  God,  and  afflicted.     Then  I  can  tell  him 

2* 


18  INTRODUCTORY  SERMON, 

each  rising  grief,  knowing  that  he  has  felt  it.  A  dying 
man  looks  upon  kind  friends  about  his  bed,  and  thinks. 
How  little  do  you  know  by  experience  about  this ! 
But  his  heavenly  Friend  "  became  obedient  unto  death, 
even  the  death  of  the  cross."  We  watch  the  faces  of 
our  children,  and  dear  companions,  and  friends,  as 
death  approaches,  and  in  their  agony  of  death  we  feel 
helpless  as  they ;  but  Jesus  died,  and  needs  no  help 
from  us  in  his  perfect  sympathy  with,  the  departing 
spirit.  Dear,  dying  Friend !  what  would  certain  death- 
beds have  been  to  us,  and  to  the  dying,  without  thee ! 

In  all  points  tempted  like  as  we  are,  and  as  captain 
of  our  salvation  made  perfect  through  sufferings,  he 
has  been  wherever  it  must  be  our  lot  to  go.  What- 
ever new  and  strange  emotions  of  sorrow  swell  within 
us  like  the  great  deep,  Christ  has  felt  all  this,  and 
knows  how  to  help  us.  Even  if  you  go  down  out  of 
the  ship  to  walk  on  the  waves,  Jesus  is  walking  there, 
even  to  the  fourth  watch  of  the  night. 

In  our  temptations,  how  poorly  qualified  an  angel 
would  be  to  sympathize  with  us  !  The  fiery  darts  of 
the  devil  do  not  fly  at  him.  Those  evil  passions,  that 
forgetfulness  and  contempt  of  God,  those  dreadful 
thoughts  which  make  you  shudder,  as  they  are  thrust 
into  your  heart,  he,  with  his  unsullied  virtue  and  its 
impregnable  defences,  never  knew.  Christ  was  led  up 
of  the  Spirit  into  the  wilderness  to  be  tempted  of 
the  devil.     We  find  only  a  brief  narrative  of  those 


BEHOLD   HOW  HE  LOVED  HIM.  19 

days  and  nights ;  but  we  can  somewhat  imagine  the 
anguish  of  soul  occasioned  by  the  solicitations  of  hell, 
what  distress  the  thought  of  wickedness  awakened  in 
that  Lamb  of  God,  what  intolerable  disgust  and  pain 
in  hearing  and  seeing  the  prince  of  darkness,  as  he 
plied  his  diabolical  arts  to  impugn  the  divine  charac- 
ter, and  with  hypocrisy,  cunning  craftiness,  and  lies, 
aided  by  the  counsels  of  the  pit,  wrought  desperately 
to  effect  his  purpose.  If  the  arch  enemy  seeks  with 
such  skill  and  perseverance  to  ruin  us,  he  must  have 
exhausted  the  ingenuity  of  his  counselors  and  his 
own  experience  to  ruin  Christ  by  temptation.  Blessed 
Redeemer !  what  had  become  of  us  if  thou  hadst  fal- 
tered 1  Seeing  us  struggling  with  a  great  temptation, 
what  memories  and  what  sympathies  stir  within  thee ! 

Christ,  as  a  Friend,  is  constant 

We  might  expect  that  eternal  love  will  be  everlast- 
ing. It  is  said,  "  Having  loved  his  own  which  were 
in  the  world,  he  loved  them  unto  the  end."  One 
thing  can  be  said  of  this  friend,  He  never  gave  up 
one  friend  for  another  ;  there  is  nothing  fickle,  incon- 
stant, in  his  feelings.  If  he  loves  you  once,  he  will 
love  you  forever,  with  increasing  affection ;  but  this 
will  be  equally  true,  that  you  will  continue  to  love 
him,  and  that  increasingly. 

Amid  the  changes  of  life,  and  when  you  cease  to 
move  the  affections  or  excite  the  interest  which  were 


20  INTRODUCTORY  SERMON. 

once  felt  toward  you  ;  Avlien  your  outward  and  inward 
attractions,  your  senses,  your  power  to  help  others, 
are  greatly  impaired  ;  when  you  are  old  and  decrepit, 
and  are  only  tolerated,  and  are  a  burden  to  your- 
self, —  the  Saviour  will  love  you  as  he  did  when  you 
were  young.  "  And  even  to  your  old  age  I  am  he, 
and  even  to  hoar  hairs  will  I  carry  you."  We  see 
this  confirmed  in  the  experience  of  many  an  aged 
saint,  loving  Christ,  and  evidently  loved  by  him  far 
more  than  in  youth,  showing  the  pure  disinterested- 
ness as  well  as  the  constancy  of  the  Saviour's  love; 
and  in  these  respects  how  unlike  many,  very  many 
instances  of  human  attachment  and  affection ! 

Chnst,  as  a  Friend,  is  kind. 

We  read  of  "  the  kindness  and  love  of  God  our 
Saviour."  There  is  an  obvious  and  beautiful  distinc- 
tion between  love  and  kindness.  The  kindness  of 
Christ  is  illustrated,  among  other  things,  in  this,  that 
he  does  not  indulge  in  upbraiding  and  reproach. 
There  is  a  gentleness  of  wisdom  in  his  way  of  cor- 
recting us,  adapting  his  reproofs  with  wonderful  skill, 
touching  certain  feelings,  and  exciting  thoughts,  which 
enter  into  our  souls  more  than  a  hundred  stripes. 
Who  has  not  been  subdued  by  the  delicate  and  kind 
methods  by  which  he  has  been  brought  to  see  his 
error,  opportunity  being  afforded  to  retract  without 
loss  of  reputation,  or  severe  wounds  to  his  sensibilities, 


BEHOLD  now  HE  LOVED   HIM.  21 

and  by  means  of  just  so  much  of  a  suggestion  as  im- 
plies confidence  in  him,  instead  of  being  beaten  as  the 
horse  and  the  mule.  David  seems  to  have  felt  this 
when  he  said,  "  Thy  gentleness  hath  made  me  great." 
We  feel  thankful  to  a  friend,  who,  when  he  sees  we 
are  in  the  wrong,  merely  drops  a  general  remark,  or 
simply  raises  a  question,  not  as  a  hint,  but  intended 
to  be  fully  understood,  yet  with  the  feeling  that  a  word 
to  the  wdse  is  sufficient.  As  we  come  to  ourselves, 
and  see  our  mistake,  the  friend  who  forbore  to  deal 
harshly  with  us  when  he  saw  our  folly,  appears  to  us 
prudent  and  kind  ;  we  love  him  and  trust  in  him,  and 
wish  that  we  could  be  as  forbearing  and  wise.  He 
who  spoke  from  heaven  so  gently  and  kindly  to  the 
persecuting  Saul,  and  turned  and  looked  on  Peter, 
and  treated  the  unbelieving  Thomas  w^ith  such  af- 
fecting skill,  is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  for- 
ever. "  Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go "  but  unto 
thee? 

Christ  is  long  suffering  in  Ms  kindness. 

We  should  have  broken  the  heart  of  every  friend 
on  earth,  had  we  treated  him  as  we  have  treated 
Christ;  When  at  his  table  we  remembei;  our  sins 
against  him,  and  he  cheers  us  with  his  forgiving  love, 
he  makes  us  feel  how  patient  and  forgiving  he  is,  and 
that,  were  it  not  for  this,  he  would  many  a  time  have  de- 
clared his  covenant  with  us  dissolved  by  our  unfaith- 


22  INTRODUCTORY  SERMON. 

fulness  to  that  covenant.  When  we  have  done  wick- 
edly, and  are  afraid  to  pray,  and  therefore,  as  David  did, 
keep  silence,  some  great  mercy,  some  favorable  turn  in 
our  affairs,  some  touching  event  which  interests  our 
feelings  as  a  special  act  of  kindness,  some  meltings  of 
heart,  will  move  us  to  confess  and  repent ;  and  thus  he 
draws  us  with  the  cords  of  love  and  the  bands  of  a 
man.  He  punished  Moses,  the  meekest  of  men,  severe- 
ly, for  his  want  of  forbearance  toward  Israel  in  their 
provocations.  Christ  has  great  occasion  still  for  long 
suffering  and  forbearance  with  each  of  us,  and  with 
his  churches.  When  a  controversy  and  quarrel  arises 
in  a  church,  and  you  are  called  to  hear  their  accusa- 
tions and  recriminations,  and  perceive  that  one  act  of 
forbearance,  or  confession  and  Christian  love,  at  the 
right  time,  would  have  prevented  the  whole,  (yet  they 
could  not  watch  with  Christ  one  hour,)  you  see  his 
forbearance  illustrated,  and  perceive  that  his  sufferings 
for  his  church  are  followed  by  sufferings  from  his 
church,  and  that  there  is  something  yet  to  be  filled 
up  of  the  afflictions  of  Christ  for  his  body's  sake, 
which  is  the  church.  Of  every  church,  perhaps,  in 
some  part  of  its  history,  and  of  each  of  us,  it  will  be 
said  with  truth  hereafter  concerning  the  treatment 
which  we  have  received  from  Christ,  "In  his  love 
and  in  his  pity  he  redeemed  them,  and  he  bare  them 
and  carried  them  all  the  days  of  old." 


BEHOLD   HOW  HE  LOVED  HIM.  23 

He  is  always  with  us. 

Some  of  our  greatest  trials  are  by  separations  from 
those  whom  we  need  to  counsel  and  help  us.  Christ 
says,  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of 
the  world."  We  lie  down  in  the  narrow  berth  in  the 
sides  of  the  ship,  and  Jesus  is  with  us  as  though  we 
were  in  our  own  beds  at  home.  We  land  among 
strangers,  every  face  unknown  to  us,  but  the  Saviour 
is  at  our  side.  He  needs  no  help  of  friends  in  pro- 
tecting us.  Parents,  husbands,  and  wives  think  of 
their  absent  children  or  companions,  who,  they  hear, 
are  sick  or  in  peril,  and  they  wish  that  they  could  fly 
to  them.  But  they  can  procure  for  them  the  presence 
and  help  of  Christ,  without  whom  even  their  presence 
would  be  of  no  use.  As  afflicted  relatives  said,  Lord,' 
I  beseech  thee,  come,  so  we  may  say,  Lord,  I  beseech 
thee,  go  and  heal  my  child.  Far  off  to  the  Pacific  j 
shores,  or  in  the  sultry  tropics,  behold  him  languish- 
ing. That  wandering  child,  that  "younger  son," 
Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  souls,  keep  thine  eye  upon 
him.  The  foreign  missionary  places  his  two  young 
children  under  the  care  of  his  friend,  a  captain  of  a 
vessel,  and  sends  them  across  the  sea  to  the  parents' 
native  land.  What  a  treasure  does  that  vessel  bear ! 
Who  can  describe  the  feelings  of  the  parents  on  the 
headland  as  the  w^hite  sails  become  gray  and  dim  in 
the  departing  daylight,  and  suddenly  disappear  be- 
hind  a   billow'?    What  sustains   the   parents   then? 


24  INTRODUCTORY  SERMON. 

This  is  to  "  forsake  children  "  for  Christ's  sake  and 
the  gospel's ;  and  where  is  the  hundred  fold  in  this 
life  1  Christ  has  not  only  gone  in  the  ship,  but  he 
imparts  a  hundred  fold  in  this  life  to  the  parents,  in 
the  vivid  faith  and  the  exceeding  love  which  they  feel 
toward  him,  which  they  tell  us  is  worth  all  that  it  cost 
in  the  sacrifice  of  natural  affection.  "  Thou  art  with 
me,"  is  the  all-sufficient  reason  why  we  should  "  fear 
no  evil  "  even  though  we  walk  through  the  valley  of 
the  shadow  of  death. 

Christ  can  do  for  us  things  tvhich  no  other  friend 
can  do. 

AYhen  the  wisdom  of  friends  fails,  there  is  one 
who  is  called  Wonderful,  Counselor.  When  their 
means  of  helping  us  are  deficient,  we  "  are  blessed  of 
the  Lord  which  made  heaven  and  earth,"  and  there- 
fore has  heaven  and  earth  from  which  to  draw  in  pro- 
viding for  us. 

Christ  is  our  Friend  when  all  our  friends  are  dead. 
Some  of  you  are  very  desolate,  and  the  world  is  en- 
tirely changed  to  you  since  that  dear  companion,  or 
child,  or  relative,  was  taken  from  you.  But  Christ 
was  your  Friend  before  they  were,  and  he  gave  them 
to  you ;  he  lays  his  right  hand  upon  you,  and  says, 
"  Fear  not ;  I  am  the  first  and  the  last ;  I  am  he  that 
liveth  and  was  dead,  and  behold  I  am  alive  forever- 
more  ! " 


BEHOLD   HOW   HE  LOVED  HIM.  25 

Christ  will  be  our  Friend  when  we  come  to  die. 
Our  great  concern,  if  we  have  our  senses,  then  will 
be,  Is  Christ  my  Friend'?  AVhat  though  the  house 
were  full  of  friends  and  physicians  'i  "  Christ  in  you 
the  hope  of  glory,"  would  be  more  than  all.  Should 
the  crowns  of  earth  be  laid  on  your  bed,  you  would 
say,  A  steadfast  hope  that  Christ  is  my  Friend  is  worth 
infinitely  more  than  these.  What  did  the  souls  that 
wore  them  do  without  Christ  when  they  came  to  diel 

Christ  will  be  our  Friend  at  the  bar  of  God.  Friends 
can  not  help  us,  plead  for  us,  and  shield  us.  But  if 
Christ  is  my  Friend  I  am  as  safe  at  the  bar  of  God  as 
though  Christ  stood  there  for  me.  How  safe  the  man 
Christ  Jesus  would  be  on  trial  at  the  bar  of  God !  — 
yet  no  more  safe  than  you  if  "  found  in  him,  not  hav- 
ing "  your  "  own  righteousness,  but  the  righteousness 
which  is  of  God  by  faith."  It  shall  be  said  for  you, 
"  Who  is  he  that  condemneth  1    It  is  Christ  that  died." 

We  shall  have  the  Saviour's  friendship  at  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead.  All  things  will  be  dissolved, 
the  earth  and  the  heavens  will  flee  away,  and  there 
shall  be  found  no  place  for  them ;  every  eye  will  be 
directed  toward  the  Saviour  in  robes  of  judgment. 
A  look  of  recognition  from  him  in  that  hour,  an  assur- 
ance of  safety,  will  be  worth  a  life  spent  in  extreme 
self-denial  and  sacrifice  for  Christ's  sake,  even  if  it 
were  not  its  own  reward.  As  though  Christ  knew 
what  our  feelings  are  in  anticipation  of  that  great  day 


26  INTRODUCTORY  SERMOX. 

when  the  dead  shall  awake,  three  times  in  one  dis- 
course he  utters  these  words :  "  And  I  will  raise  him 
up  at  the  last  day."  But  do  not  forget  that  you  will 
have  come  with  Christ  to  judgment ;  that  your  tri- 
umphant spirit,  like  Christ,  will  "  descend  from  heaven 
with  a  shout,"  and  receive  your  glorified  body  at  your 
grave.  "  Them  that  sleep  in  Jesus  will  God  bring 
with  him." 

We  shall  have  Christ  for  our  Friend  in  heaven.  He 
is  your  personal  Friend  here ;  he  manifests  himself  to 
your  faith,  and  makes  you  feel  that  he  is  with  you ; 
will  he  be  less  your  Friend,  or  less  able  to  bless  you, 
when  you  see  him  face  to  facel  He  will  sit  with  you 
in  your  mansion,  as  at  Bethany ;  you  will  have  private, 
personal  intercourse  with  him  who  loved  you  and  gave 
himself  for  you.  "  Since  thou  hast  been  precious  in 
my  sight,  thou  hast  been  honorable,  and  I  have  loved 
thee."  If  you  may  sit  with  him  on  his  throne,  he 
will  not  refuse  to  sit  with  you  in  that  place  which  he 
has  gone  to  "  prepare  for  you." 

One  thing  more  which  makes  the  value  of  the  Sa- 
viour as  a  Friend  exceeding  great,  and  for  its  practical 
value  perhaps  nothing  which  has  been  said  exceeds  it, 
is  this :  — 

JVe  can  have  resort  to  this  Friend  as  often  as  ive 
please. 

If  we  called  the  attention  of  our  best  earthly  friend 


BEHOLD  HOW  HE  LOVED  HIM,  27 

to  US  as  often  as  we  call  on  Christ  in  our  private  mo- 
ments —  if  any  friend,  however  near  and  dear  to  us, 
heard  us  using  his  name  as  much  as  we  appeal  to  the 
Saviour,  —  he  could  not  endure  it ;  he  would  be  weary 
of  us.  But  you  may  lie  all  night  upon  a  bed  of  pain 
and  call  on  Christ,  and  he  will  hear  and  pity  you. 
When  you  have  presented  a  particular  case  to  him 
which  interests  you  greatly,  you  need  not,  you  do  not, 
hesitate  to  ask  him,  again  and  again,  to  remember  your 
prayer.  The  unjust  judge  said,  "lest  by  her  con- 
tinual coming  she  weary  me."  So  would  any  earthly 
friend  say,  just  or  unjust.  We  state  our  case  to  a 
friend,  and  feel  that  it  is  respectful  to  leave  it.  We 
can  not  rehearse  it  to  him  many  times,  and  dwell  upon 
the  circumstances,  which  he  appreciates  as  well  as  we. 
It  is  not  suitable  to  appear  at  his  door  every  hour. 
But  you  can  knock  at  Christ's  door  every  hour,  and 
say,  "How  long,  O  Lord]"  "Hast  thou  forgotten 
to  be  gracious  ?  "  "  Hast  thou  in  anger  shut  up  thy 
tender  mercies  V  "I  watch  for  thee  more  than  they 
that  watch  for  the  morning ;  I  say,  more  than  they 
that  watch  for  the  morning."  We  can  talk  more  fre- 
quently with  Christ  than  with  the  dearest  earthly 
friend ;  and  even,  when  enjoying  the  sweetest  inter- 
course with  that  companion,  find  our  thoughts  drawn 
away  to  a  heaven  of  heavens  in  a  sweeter  and  more 
intimate  communion  with  our  infinite  and  heavenly 
Friend. 


28  INTRODUCTORY  SERMON. 

There  is  one  thing  more  in  Christ  as  a  Friend  which, 
though  of  a  different  nature  from  all  that  has  been 
said,  does  not  yield  in  interest  to  it :  — 

TVe  may  do  more  for  this  Friend  than  for  any 
other. 

In  your  friendship  and  love,  oftentimes  your  great- 
est trial  is,  you  can  not  do  for  those  whom  you  love 
all  that'  you  desire.  Sometimes  your  relation  to  them 
is  such  that  you  can  not  do  any  thing  for  them  —  it  is 
not  suitable  to  offer  your  aid.  How  often  do  we  hear 
of  those  whom  we  greatly  respect  and  love  as  being 
in  trouble,  but  we  are  not  at  liberty  to  tell  them  how 
much  we  feel,  and  how  much  we  would  rejoice  to  do, 
in  their  behalf  Now,  there  is  not  a  friend,  nor  one 
whom  you  would  feel  honored  to  call  your  friend, 
who  would  esteem  your  greatest  favors  and  kindness 
so  much  as  Christ  would  to  receive  from  you  a  cup 
of  cold  water.  While  there  are  bedsides  and  cham- 
bers where  we  would  rejoice  to  linger,  but  can  not 
come,  we  can  nevertheless  visit  Christ  in  his  sickness; 
we  can  go  to  him  without  waiting  to  be  sent  for ;  in 
prison  we  can  befriend  him ;  naked,  hungry,  a  stran- 
ger, we  can  minister  unto  him.  AVe  can  live  for 
Christ ;  we  can  deny  ourselves  for  Christ ;  we  can 
"bring  presents  to  him"  at  any  time,  large  or  small, 
or  in  the  form  of  any  thing  valuable  to  us,  and  it  will 
not  fail  to  be  acceptable  and  valuable  to  him ;  we  can 


BEHOLD  HOW  HE  LOVED  HIM.  29 

leave  all  our  friends  for  him,  our  home,  our  country ; 
we  can  suffer  persecution  for  him,  we  can  die  for  him. 

Therefore,  reminding  him  of  his  own  words,  how 
he  said,  "  It  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive," 
we  may  contend  with  him  in  love,  and  say  that 
of  his  infinite  love  to  us,  —  of  which,  indeed,  we 
desire  always  to  hear,  rather  than  of  our  love  to 
him,  —  it  is  a  crowning  joy  that  he  permits  us  to  do 
for  him  all  that  we  desire,  that  he  accepts  that  desire 
when  the  ability  is  inconsiderable,  and  that  he  is  gra- 
ciously pleased  to  give,  as  the  reason  for  his  accept- 
ance of  us  at  the  great  day,  our  poor  but  affectionate 
testimonies  of  love  to  him. 

But  leaving  many  things  to  be  said  in  connection 
with  particular  illustrations  of  his  friendship,  as  they 
will  be  presented  in  the  following  discourses,  let  us 
turn  our  thoughts,  in  conclusion,  to  the  following 
truths. 

1.  Whoever  may  love  us,  we  can  not  be  truly  happy 
without  the  friendship  of  Christ. 

It  is  strange  that  we  can  contract  earthly,  short- 
lived friendships  with  man,  which  is  a  worm,  and 
neglect  and  forget  our  infinite  Friend.  How  eager 
we  are  in  watching  for  the  slightest  encouragement 
to  our  advances  of  friendship  and  love  from  one  whom 
the  grave  must  shortly  consume !  "We  read  a  letter 
again  and  again,  to  be  sure  that  we  are  warranted  in 


30  INTRODUCTORY  SERMON, 

our  hopes ;  the  issue  of  our  suit  we  feel  will  make 
us  perfectly  happy,  or  miserable.  But  have  we  ever 
sought  friendship  with  Jesus  Christ,  sued  for  his  love, 
waited  and  watched  for  tokens  that  we  are  "  accepted 
in  the  beloved"'?  There  will  be  an  hour  when,  if 
every  friend  and  every  object  of  love  were  gathered 
together,  you  would  forsake  them  all,  press  by  them 
all,  to  reach  Christ,  and  be  assured  from  his  lips  that 
he  loves  you.  O  that  men  understood  what  is  in- 
volved in  having  him  for  a  Friend ! 

"  His  worth  if  all  the  nations  knew, 
Sure  the  whole  world  would  love  him  too." 

He  makes  a  claim  so  great,  so  bold,  that  to  every 
one  who  believes  in  him,  it  proves,  of  itself,  his  in- 
finite excellence.  "  He  that  loveth  father  or  mother 
more  than  me  is  not  worthy  of  me ;  and  he  that 
loveth  son  or  daughter  more  than  me  is  not  worthy 
of  me." 

2.  TVe  should  he  such  friends  to  others  as  Christ  is 
to  us. 

If  we  made  him  our  pattern  in  friendships,  and 
felt  toward  others  and  treated  them  accordingly,  the 
effect  would  be,  that  we  should  certainly  put  on  chari- 
ty, which  is  the  bond  of  perfectness.  We  may  suit- 
ably inquire,  for  the  regulation  of  our  feelings  and 
conduct  toward  others.   How  does  the  Saviour  deal 


BEHOLD  HOW  HE  LOVED  HDI.  31 

with  me  when  I  am  at  fault '?  Would  Christ  speak 
to  me  with  the  tone  and  manner  with  which  I 
speak  to  others  ?  Would  Christ  do  things  for  me 
with  the  air  or  look  with  which  I  help  others  ?  If 
husbands  and  wives,  brothers  and  sisters,  if  partners 
in  business,  if  apprentices,  if  neighbors,  if  companions 
generally,  if  men  and  nations  were  such  friends  as 
Christ  is  to  us,  the  Prince  of  Peace  would  reign  every 
where.  It  will  be  so ;  it  must  be  so  ;  we  who  pro- 
fess to  be  his  followers  must  make  it  thus  with  our- 
selves, in  all  our  private  and  public  relations. 

3.  The  greatest  sin  which  is  not  unpardonable  is. 
Ingratitude  to  Christ. 

If  we  seriously  consider  what  Christ  has  done  for 
us,  what  he  has  suffered  for  us,  what  he  has  thought 
about  us,  what  he  is  doing  for  us  in  heaven,  how  he 
has  interceded  for  us  when  justice  would  have  cut  us 
down,  with  what  consideration  he  treats  us,  how  he 
bears  and  forbears  with  us,  and  that  notwithstanding 
all  that  is  past  he  is  still  wooing  our  affections  by  his 
mercies,  his  word,  and  his  Spirit,  and  that  he  still  de- 
sires to  save  us  and  have  us  for  his  friends,  and  then 
reflect  how  we  have  treated  him,  it  would  seem  as 
though  we  could  not  keep  back  our  tears. 

The  thought  of  coldness  or  ingratitude  to  a  de- 
ceased friend  who  loved  you  in  life  and  in  death,  is 
sometimes   extremely  afflicting.     Christ   is,  in    some 


32  INTRODUCTORY  SERMON. 

respect,  like  a  deceased  friend,  whose  death  was  caused 
by  his  love  to  you;  and  yet,  perhaps,  you  have  never 
requited  his  love  with  gratitude,  never  have  gone  with 
faith  and  love  to  his  tomb,  never  have  uttered  a  strong, 
impassioned  protestation  of  your  feelings  toward 
him,  as  you  so  often  do  with  regard  to  a  deceased 
friend. 

It  is  not  uncommon  to  hear  the  name  of  the  Sa- 
viour used  profanely ;  indeed  it  is  probably  connected 
with  oaths  and  cursing  more  frequently  than  any  other 
sacred  name,  this  being,  as  many  feel,  but  erroneous- 
ly, a  step  this  side  of  taking  the  name  of  God  in  vain. 
What  mournful  evidence  have  we  here  of  the  base- 
ness and  depravity  of  man,  that  the  name  of  his  Re- 
deemer is  joined  with  ribaldry  and  angry  passions ! 
Still,  they  who  do  this,  oftentimes  are  not  the  greatest 
sinners.  Probably  there  is  no  such  object  of  aston- 
ishment and  sorrow  to  angels  as  a  human  being  who, 
with  a  full  belief  in  Christ  as  his  incarnate  God  and 
Saviour,  treats  him  with  indifference  and  neglect. 
Paul,  closing  one  of  his  Epistles,  was  seized  with  a 
sudden  and  overwhelming  conviction  of  this  dreadful 
wickedness,  and  abruptly  exclaimed,  "  If  any  man 
love  not  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  let  him  be  anathema 
maranatha."  That  a  man  like  Paul  should  thus  ex- 
press himself,  that  such  an  imprecation  should  be 
pronounced  in  connection  with  a  dying  Saviour's 
name,  shows  that  indifference  to  Christ  —  merely  not 


BEHOLD   HOW  HE  LOVED   HIM.  33 

to  love  Christ  —  is  cause  for  the  deepest  shame  and 
sorrow.  AVe  can  not  admit  all  that  is  declared  in  the 
Bible  respecting  Christ  and  his  relation  to  us,  and  not 
see  that  ingratitude  to  Christ  is  surpassed  by  no  other 
sin  TP^hich  comes  within  the  reach  of  mercy. 

Ambassadors  are  sometimes  sent  to  contract  mar- 
riages for  royal  persons  with  those  whom  they  would 
afSance.  We  are  ambassadors  for  Christ ;  and  the 
great  object  of  Christian  ministers  should  be  to  join 
their  hearers  to  him.  In  seeking  to  do  this,  a  preach- 
er once  used  these  words  for  his  text :  "  Hearken,  O 
daughter,  and  consider,  and  incline  thine  ear ;  forget 
also  thy  people  and  thy  father's  house.  So  shall  the 
king  greatly  desire  thy  beauty ;  for  he  is  thy  lord,  and 
worship  thou  him."  This  invitation  to  receive  the 
Saviour's  love  was  accepted  by  one  of  the  congrega- 
tion, and,  so  far  as  the  preacher  has  ever  learned,  by 
only  one  of  them  at  that  time.  There  was  one  whom 
the  Saviour  did  then  espouse,  as  though  he  did  great- 
ly desire  her  beauty.  That  individual  was  the  only 
colored  person  in  the  congregation  —  a  half-breed  In- 
dian. When  she  was  examined  for  admission  to  the 
church,  the  pastor  said,  "  What  is  your  greatest  de- 
sire 1 "  She  thought  a  moment,  turned  her  eyes,  suf- 
fused with  tears,  upon  him,  and  said,  in  broken  speech, 
"  O,  sir,  to  be  joined  to  Christ ! "  That  a  sermon  from 
that  text  should  be  employed  as  the  means  of  joining 
her  to  Christ,  that  it  should  have  had  this  effect  with 


34  INTRODUCTORY  SERMON, 

her,  and  perhaps  with  no  other  in  the  assembly,  illus- 
trates what  has  already  been  said  of  the  Saviour's 
disinterested  love.  "  Wherefore  he  is  able  also  to 
save  them  to  the  uttermost  that  come  unto  God  by 
him,  seeing  that  he  ever  liveth  to  make  intercession 
for  them."  As  you  love  to  have  your  own  intimations 
of  regard  and  friendship  promptly  met  and  responded 
to  with  confiding  affection,  so  treat  Christ  in  the  offer 
which  he  now  makes  to  you  of  his  love.  Enter  into  an 
engagement,  make  a  covenant  wdth  him,  and  an  event 
will  thus  take  place  whose  blissful  history  no  pen,  no 
tongues  of  angels,  can  describe.  His  offers  may  soon 
be  withdrawn ;  he  may  turn  from  you  and  go  away ; 
death  will  come  ;  others  will  take  the  happiness  which 
might  have  been  yours. 

As  you  read  in  these  discourses  what  a  Friend 
Christ  has  been  to  some  of  every  class  and  condition, 
to  sinners  of  every  name  and  degree,  may  your  con- 
fidence, your  love,  your  joy,  in  him  increase,  his  name 
be  to  you  as  ointment  poured  forth,  and  the  language 
of  the  redeemed  church,  the  Lamb's  wife,  be  yours : 
This  is  my  Beloved,  and  this  is  my  Friend. 


SERMON  II. 


THE   CALL   OF  MATTHEW. 


MATTHEW  IX.  9. 


AND  AS  JESUS  PASSED  FORTH  FROM  THENCE,  HE  SAW  A  MAN,  NAMED  MAT- 
THEW, SITTING  AT  THE  RECEIPT  OF  CUSTOM,  AND  HE  SAITH  UNTO  HIM, 
"FOLLOW  ME."      AND   HE   AROSE  AND   FOLLOWED   HIM. 

We  have  before  us  a  man  of  business  at  his  ac-| 
customed  place,  and  the  Saviour  of  the  world  appear- ' 
ing  to  him  there.  He  who  bought  us  with  a  price 
uses  his  right  to  stand  before  us  at  the  busiest  hour, 
to  come  between  us  and  the  dearest  earthly  friend ; 
nor,  in  the  midst  of  the  most  important  and  profitable 
transaction  does  he  hesitate  to  absorb  our  whole  at- 
tention and  thoughts ;  so  that,  whether  he  comes  to 
make  us  his  friends,  or  to  hold  communion  with  us, 
or  to  call  us  away  from  the  world,  he  claims  and  takes 
precedence,  in  his  right  as  Redeemer  and  Lord.  While 
the  appearance  of  Christ  at  places  of  business  would 
to  many  be  exceedingly  unwelcome  and  embarrassing, 
to  some  of  you  at  such  places  he  is  no  stranger.  In 
your  busiest  hours,  and  sometimes  while  conversing 

(35) 


36  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

with  others,  he  is  in  your  heart ;  moments  of  peace 
and  joy  at  the  thought  of  him,  sudden  impulses  of 
gratitude  and  love,  generous  deeds  done  in  his  name 
to  his  friends,  letters  written  breathing  his  spirit,  do- 
ing justly  and  loving  mercy  prompted  by  him,  are 
proofs  that  you  can  reciprocate  his  gracious  words, 
and  say,  "  Where  I  am,  there  may  also  my  "  Saviour 
"  be."  May  he  be  with  you  always,  that  you  be  not 
overcharged  with  the  cares  of  this  life  ;  to  sustain  you 
in  trial,  defend  you  in  prosperity,  keep  you  from  the 
evil,  make  you  bear  his  image,  and  amidst  covetous- 
ness,  injustice,  and  deceit  make  you  to  shine  as  lights 
in  the  world. 

A  man  of  business  penned  the  words  of  the  text. 
When  you  consider  the  honor  bestowed  on  Matthew 
in  being  called  by  the  Saviour  to  be  his  disciple,  and 
think  of  the  privilege  given  to  him  of  writing  the 
Saviour's  life,  and  then  read  this  unpretending  ac- 
count by  himself  of  his  call  and  appointment  as  a 
disciple,  you  may  search  long  before  you  find  a  better 
instance  of  conciseness  and  simplicity.  He  does  not 
say.  As  Jesus  passed  forth  from  thence  he  saw  Mat- 
thew, —  as  though  every  one  must  needs  know  who 
Matthew  was,  —  but  "  a  man  named  Matthew."  He 
tells  us  nothing  of  himself  that  would  seem  to  make 
his  call  deserved,  or  that  would  take  any  thing  from 
the  free  grace  of  Christ,  for  he  tells  us  that  he  was 
found  in  his  ordinary  occupation  as  a  publican.     We 


THE  CALL  OF  MATTHEW.  37 

have  no  inflated  description  of  the  scene  between  , 
Christ  and  himself,  nor  of  his  own  feelings.  He  says,  I 
"As  Jesus  passed  forth  from  thence,"  —  as  though  he 
did  not  come  on  purpose  to  find  him,  which  he  surely 
did.  This  instance  of  modesty  and  simplicity  is  one 
of  the  incidental  beauties  of  sacred  history ;  a  pleas- 
ant example  of  the  true  influence  of  religion  in  teach- 
ing us  to  be  simple  and  unpretending  in  all  things, 
and  especially  in  speaking  of  ourselves ;  and,  above 
all,  to  give  God  the  praise  of  all  that  we  have  and  are. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  paintings  in  the  Mu- 
seum at  Antwerp  is  a  representation  of  this  passage. 
You  see  a  man  sitting  at  a  desk,  whose  small  apart- 
ments are  filled  with  files  of  papers.  Several  men 
are  doing  business  with  him,  and  Matthew  has  in  his 
hand  a  file  of  papers,  searching  for  one  of  them,  when 
Christ  suddenly  stands  at  his  side,  and  says  to  him, 
"Follow  me."  Matthew,  with  his  papers  in  one 
hand,  and  the  other  hand  on  the  upper  end,  turning 
down  the  tops,  looks  round  with  surprise  at  the  ab- 
rupt summons.  The  men  who  are  doing  business 
with  him  express  in  their  faces  a  mingled  surprise  at 
the  call,  and  a  feeling  of  interruption  in  their  inter- 
view with  Matthew,  and  the  spectator  is  left  to  im- 
agine the  feelings  awakened  in  Matthew's  mind  by 
the  omnipotent  word  of  Christ. 

The  Saviour  knew  that  Matthew's  affairs  were  not  | 
of  such  importance,  or  in  such  a  state,  as  to  injure  t 


38  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

himself  or  others  should  he  that  moment  leave  them, 
as  the  history  informs  us  that  he  did.  Luke  tells  us, 
speaking  of  him  under  the  name  of  Levi,  that  "  he 
left  all,  rose  up,  and  followed  him."  He  adds  that 
he  made  for  Christ  "  a  great  feast  in  his  own  house, 
and  there  was  a  great  company  of  publicans  and  of 
others  that  sat  down  with  them."  So  that  his  leav- 
ing all  did  not  involve  the  unjust  abandonment  of 
his  affairs,  for  it  seems  he  returned  to  his  house,  and 
no  doubt  to  his  place  of  business,  to  do  all  that  was 
proper ;  but  forsaking  his  occupation  as  a  publican, 
he  left  his  property  in  other  hands,  or  gave  it  away, 
and  ever  after  followed  Christ.     We  will  consider,  — 

I.  The  sovereignty  of  Christ  in  selecting  and  call- 
ing Matthew. 

Though  this  man  had  done  nothing  to  merit  our 
Saviour's  selection  of  him  rather  than  another,  he  no 
doubt  had  traits  of  character  which  qualified  him  for 
future  usefulness  as  a  disciple,  but  especially  as  a  his- 
torian of  the  gospel ;  and  these,  we  may  suppose,  were 
considered  in  his  call.  Sovereignty  is  not  regardless 
of  such  things.  True,  it  was  sovereignty  which  origi- 
nally created  them ;  for  what  have  we  which  we  did 
not  receive  1  But  it  is  interesting  to  see,  that  as  God 
regards  his  own  established  laws  of  nature  in  his  prov- 
idence, so  there  is  nothing  arbitrary  or  capricious  in 
the  bestowment  of  spiritual  favors.     Were  it  other- 


THE   CALL  OF  MATTHEW.  39 

wise,  effort  would  be  discouraged,  the  present  wise  and 
wonderful  adjustment  of  human  agency  and  divine 
influences  would  be  destroyed,  and  intelligent  beings 
would  be  as  irresponsible  as  the  tides  and  winds. 
Enough  is  done  to  make  us  feel  that  God  is  supreme  ; 
that  circumstances  in  no  wise  abridge  his  authority, 
and  his  grace  sometimes  triumphs  over  difficulties  and 
rejoices  against  judgment  where  man  would  have  pro- 
nounced it  impossible  or  unsuitable.  Still,  the  Bible 
and  experience  constantly  show  that  order  and  law 
rule  in  spiritual  affairs,  that  the  government  of  God 
over  us  is  one  of  motives,  that  effects  follow  causes  as 
regularly,  and  indeed  with  more  certainty,  in  spiritual 
things  as  in  husbandry  or  handicraft;  so  that  the 
highest  motives  to  effort,  and  to  the  cultivation  of  good 
habits  and  the  use  of  means,  are  constantly  held  forth. 
Though  we  can  not  look  into  the  personal  history  of 
Matthew  previous  to  his  call  by  Christ,  the  Gospel, 
as  recorded  by  his  pen,  shows  that  some  natural  or 
acquired  fitness  for  usefulness  was  unquestionably 
among  the  reasons  in  view  of  which  Christ  called  him 
from  his  occupation  as  a  publican  to  be  a  disciple. 
Let  us,  for  example,  look  at  that  wonderful  system 
of  ethics  in  the  sermon  on  the  mount,  and  think  that 
it  passed  through  his  mind,  was  wrought  into  shape 
by  the  use  of  his  faculties  in  the  hands  of  the  Spirit, 
was  expressed  according  to  his  natural  way  of  ex- 
pressing himself,  not  in  the  cumulative  style  of  Simon 


40  CHRIST  A   FRIEND. 

Peter,  nor  in  the  meditative  and  pathetic  tone  of  John, 
but  in  the  clear,  concise,  didactic  style  precisely  suited 
to  moral  precepts.  He  was  qualified  by  nature  and 
practice,  by  experience  and  habits,  so  to  think  and 
express  himself  that  infinite  wisdom  found  in  him  a 
fit  instrument  for  this  exceedingly  important  work  of 
laying  a  foundation  of  moral  sentiments  for  the  whole 
superstructure  of  truth.  We  love  and  adore  that 
divine  wisdom  which  performs  no  needless  miracle, 
which  follows  laws,  which  loves  congruity,  which  finds 
rather  than  creates  the  instruments  for  its  purposes. 

But  at  the  same  time,  if  we  could  listen  to  Mat- 
thew's own  account  of  his  experience  and  feelings  in 
this  transaction,  he  would  humbly  tell  us  that  he  had 
done  nothing  to  merit  the  Saviour's  selection  of  him- 
self rather  than  another;  that  he  had  no  natural 
qualifications  for  usefulness  as  a  disciple  or  writer  of 
history  above  many  others ;  the  writing  of  the  New 
Testament,  as  he  would  remind  us,  being  directed  by 
the  Holy  Spirit,  bringing  all  things  to  the  remem- 
brance of  the  writer,  superintending  and  guiding  him, 
so  that  the  book,  with  the  evident  impress  of  human 
qualities  in  the  manner  of  its  composition,  should 
nevertheless  be  the  authentic  word  of  God.  Others, 
as  competent  as  Matthew,  it  is  true,  might  have  been 
found  and  used  by  the  Holy  Spirit  for  this  purpose ; 
so  that  the  sovereign  grace  of  Christ  was  put  forth  in 
calling  Matthew,  rather  •  than  any  one  of  the  thou 


THE  CALL  OF  MATTHEW.  41 

sands  who  heard  the  Saviour  preach  and  followed 
him.  To  turn  from  them  and  go  to  Matthew's  place 
of  business,  and  give  him  this  special  favor,  illustrates 
a  prophecy  respecting  Christ :  "  I  am  sought  of  them 
that  asked  not  for  me ;  I  am  found  of  them  that 
sought  me  not."  A  certain  lawyer  came  to  Christ, 
and  said,  "  Master,  what  shall  I  do  to  inherit  eternal 
life  ■? "  The  Saviour  gave  him  directions,  but  he  went 
away  sorrowful.  It  was  in  the  Saviour's  power  to  put 
forth  the  same  almighty  influence  in  converting  him 
which  he  exerted  in  prevailing  on  jNIatthew  to  follow 
him.  He  saw  fit,  however,  to  set  the  truth  before  the 
ruler,  and  let  him  alone,  to  choose  this  world  for  his 
chief  good,  to  live  wholly  for  himself,  and  then  for- 
ever to  mourn  over  a  useless,  wasted  life.  When  a 
certain  man  inquires  what  he  must  do  to  be  saved, 
and  Christ  informs  him,  and  exhorts  him  to  do  it,  and 
he  goes  away  sorrowful,  and  another  man,  sitting  in 
his  counting  room,  at  the  first  call  of  Christ  leaves 
his  papers  and  customers  and  follows  him,  no  one  can 
say  that  the  difference  in  the  two  cases  was  purely 
accidental. 

We  see  the  same  thing  in  our  religious  assemblies. 
One  hearer  becomes  concerned  for  his  soul;  the 
way  of  salvation  is  plain  to  his  mind;  but  for  some 
reason  he  is  unwilling  to  do  that  which  God  requires 
in  order  to  be  saved.  He  is  for  some  time  in  much 
uneasiness,  anxious  about  the  future,  convinced  that 


42  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

he  must  be  a  Christian,  unwilling  to  lose  his  interest 
in  the  subject  of  religion,  and  at  the  same  time  not 
willing  to  yield  himself  to  God.  His  face  is  cov- 
ered with  sadness,  sometimes  his  brow  is  knit  with 
distress,  and  under  solemn  appeals  his  mind  is  like 
the  troubled  sea.  Another  hearer  is  impressed,  goes 
home  to  his  secret  places,  pours  out  his  soul  to  God, 
immediately  accepts  Jesus  Christ  as  his  Saviour,  has 
peace  with  God,  and  finds  himself  in  a  new  world, 
while  the  same  appeal  has  served  only  to  make  the 
other  hearer  irritated  and  unhappy.  In  each  of  these 
cases,  the  individual  acts  under  no  consciousness  of 
compulsion  on  one  hand,  nor  of  hinderance  on  the 
other.  What  makes  them  to  differ "?  The  same  grace 
which  made  Matthew  differ  from  the  very  rich  man,  and 
Zaccheus  from  the  man  who  wished  to  bid  them  fare- 
well which  were  at  home  at  his  house.  Some  may 
say,  this  is  owing  to  the  difference  in  the  dispositions 
of  men ;  some  are  quick  and  resolute,  others  sluggish 
or  timid.  It  is  beyond  dispute  that  these  dispositions 
do  always  seem  in  some  measure  to  modify  the  oper- 
ation of  divine  influence,  which  falls  in  with  established 
habits,  good  and  bad,  showing  the  vast  importance 
of  habits,  and  of  a  good  natural  character ;  but  blessed 
be  God,  his  mercy  which  is  above  the  heavens  is  also 
above  all  dictation  and  control  from  our  wayward  or 
impotent  dispositions.  What  hope  would  there  be 
for  ourselves  and  others  without  this  truth"? 


THE  CALL  OF  MATTHEW.  43 

II.  Cheerful  ohedlence  to  the  call  of  Christ  is  com' 
mended  to  us  in  the  conduct  of  Matthew. 

Men  frequently  have  a  call  from  Christ  as  distinct 
and  forcible  as  that  which  he  gave  Matthew.  Few, 
if  any,  hear  these  words  to  whom  Christ  has  not  ex- 
pressly and  personally  said,  "  Follow  me."  By  a  re- 
mark in  a  sermon,  a  line  of  a  hymn,  a  thought  or 
expression  in  a  prayer,  by  a  letter,  the  conversion 
of  a  friend,  by  affliction,  he  makes  us  feel  deeply  the 
importance  and  necessity  of  repentance  and  faith. 
Some  yield  to  his  call  without  delay.  Some  repel 
their  serious  thoughts.  Others  are  made  melancholy 
by  their  religious  impressions.  They  will  weep  long 
and  bitterly  because  they  can  not  prevail  on  them- 
selves to  do  their  duty  without  delay.  Too  much 
seems  to  them  to  be  required  in  the  way  of  sacrifice  in 
order  to  be  a  Christian ;  they  would  keep  certain 
things  which  are  felt  to  be  inconsistent  with  spiritual 
religion ;  they  shrink  from  certain  duties  which  it 
will  suggest  and  require ;  and  still  they  remember  the 
Saviour's  direction,  "  If  any  man  will  come  after  me, 
let  him  deny  himself,  and  take  up  his  cross  daily,  and 
follow  me."  Their  mental  struggle  is  sometimes 
protracted  through  a  long  period,  and  then  most  fre- 
quently ends  in  unconcern.  In  contrast  with  this, 
it  is  refreshing  to  notice  the  conduct  of  Matthew. 
Though  Christ  sent  his  almighty  power  with  his 
word  to  incline  his  heart,  still  Matthew  was  not  con- 


44  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

scions  of  it ;  for  divine  influence  never  interrupts  our 
consciousness  of  perfect  freedom  in  our  choice.  As 
soon  as  the  Saviour  presented  himself  at  his  door  and 
called  him,  Matthew,  who,  of  course,  had  had  some 
previous  acquaintance  with  him,  arose,  left  all,  and 
followed  him.  On  that  countenance  at  his  door  there 
was  such  an  expression  as  Matthew  never  saw  on  any 
human  face  ;  there  were  blended  majesty  and  love,  au- 
thority and  kindness  in  it ;  the  voice,  too,  was  earnest 
and  inviting,  the  whole  manner  of  the  divine  speaker 
was  irresistible.  What  were  the  interesting  and  all- 
absorbing  scenes  of  business  compared  with  the  desire 
to  have  that  man  for  his  Friend'?  "When  he  had  gone 
with  Christ  a  little  way,  and  the  first  excitement  of 
the  scene  was  over,  no  doubt  his  mind  went  back  to 
his  place  of  business,  his  affairs  presented  themselves 
before  him,  he  thought  of  the  sudden  and  great 
change  which  had  happened  to  him.  There  he  stood 
with  Christ  on  one  side  of  a  stream,  divided  from 
many  things  which  before  had  constituted  his  happi- 
ness. Probably  he  was  never  supremely  happy  till 
that  moment.  The  promise  had  begun  to  be  fulfilled 
to  him  —  "He  shall  receive  a  hundred  fold  in  this 
life."  By  the  side  of  Christ,  with  the  consciousness 
of  his  favor,  no  king  on  his  throne,  nor  lover  of  pleas- 
ure in  his  most  delicious  dreams,  could  be  compared 
w^th  Matthew  at  that  moment  as  a  happy  man.  Sup- 
pose that  when  Christ  called  him,  Matthew  had  begun 


THE  CALL  OF  MATTHEW.  45 

to  make  excuses,  or  had  said,  "  Go  thy  way  for  this 
time ; "  suppose  that,  upon  the  continued  urgency  of 
Christ,  Matthew  had  begun  to  weep,  and  say,  How 
little  do  I  feel  the  importance  of  this  call !  I  need 
first  to  have  a  new  heart ;  I  have  never  sufficiently 
repented  of  my  sins  to  be  a  follower  of  Christ.  Alas  ! 
I  have  no  faith.  I  am  too  much  engrossed  in  busi- 
ness ;  the  world  has  possession  of  my  heart  —  I  will 
release  myself  soon  from  these  cares.  Suppose  then 
that  Christ  had  gone  from  him,  leaving  him  to  his 
business  and  gain.  Sick  at  heart,  every  witnessing 
angel  would  have  turned  away,  saying,  "  Thou  fool." 
Should  we  not  have  felt  compelled  to  say  the  samel 
And  is  there  not  within  us  something  like  Nathan  the 
seer,  saying,  "  Thou  art  the  man  "  1 

III.  We  will  consider  the  reivards  of  prompt  sub- 
mission and  obedience  to   Christ. 

God  loveth  a  cheerful  giver.  When  we  give  him 
any  thing,  he  loves  to  have  us  do  it  with  the  heart. 
When  we  give  him  our  hearts,  he  loves  to  have  us  do 
it  with  all  the  soul,  and  mind,  and  strength.  To 
share  our  affections  with  him ;  to  yield  ourselves  to 
him  hesitatingly,  distrustful  either  of  his  willingness 
to  accept  us,  or  of  his  ability  to  make  us  happy,  is 
not  well  pleasing  to  God.  He  would  have  us  give 
ourselves  to  him  with  the  same  spirit  of  generous  love 
with  which  he  gave  his  Son  to  be  the  propitiation  for 


46  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

our  sins.  When  one  loves  God  in  this  way,  prompt- 
ly and  cheerfully  obeying  his  call  and  command,  God 
bestows  peculiar  blessings  upon  him ;  for  it  is  a  gen- 
eral truth,  applying  as  well  to  our  intercourse  with 
God  as  with  men,  "  With  what  measure  ye  mete,  it 
shall  be  measured  to  you  again."  If  we  intend  to 
be  Christians,  it  will  be  a  great  thing  for  us  to  act 
promptly,  with  decision,  unreservedly,  and  with  ear- 
nest minds.  Matthew  was  an  instance  of  this.  See 
the  rewards  that  followed. 

He  was  a  companion  of  the  Saviour  during  all  his 
public  ministry ;  he  saw  his  wonderful  works ;  he 
heard  his  gracious  words ;  he  joined  in  prayer  with 
him ;  he  walked  and  talked  with  Christ.  Scenes  of 
indescribable  interest  passed  under  his  eye ;  and  in 
the  little  family  of  Christ,  going  like  strangers  and 
pilgrims  from  place  to  place,  he  had  enjoyment  which 
the  world  could  not  give  nor  take  away.  However 
much  he  may  have  enjoyed  these  privileges  at  the 
time,  we  may  suppose  that  when  he  was  able  fully  to 
understand  all  that  had  taken  place  in  the  history  of 
Christ,  and  as  the  work  of  human  i-edemption  unfold- 
ed itself  to  his  view,  his  personal  intercourse  with 
Christ  must  have  seemed  to  him  like  a  trance,  in  which 
the  unutterable  things  of  heaven  are  crowded  upon 
the  mind,  and  afterward  swell  to  such  dimensions  that 
it  is  not  possible  to  express  them.  So  it  will  be  with 
him  forever  ;  the  privilege  of  having  been  a  personal 


THE  CALL  OF  MATTHEW.  47 

attendant  of  Christ  during  the  Saviour's  earthly 
life,  will,  through  eternity,  present  itself  to  him 
increasingly  with  wonder  and  joy.  But  the  time 
came  when  it  was  necessary  that  the  history  of  Christ 
should  be  written.  The  Holy  Spirit  selected  Mat- 
thew to  be  one  of  his  penmen,  enlightened  his  mem- 
ory, brought  back  to  his  mind  not  only  the  acts  but 
the  most  important  words  of  the  Saviour,  and  super- 
intended, controlled,  guided  him  in  the  plan  and 
method  of  his  history,  in  admitting  and  rejecting 
things,  in  correcting  and  finally  completing  the  event- 
ful and  all-important  record.  It  is  pleasant  to  think 
what  Matthew's  feelings  and  enjoyment  must  have 
been,  when,  with  a  memory  assisted  by  the  divine 
Spirit,  and  with  clear  visions  of  all  that  passed  under 
his  eye,  he  wrote  the  account  of  the  Saviour's  deeds 
and  words,  hallowed  by  the  endearing  influence  of 
separation  from  his  adorable  Master.  Happy  man ! 
You  might  have  spent  your  life  counting  money,  and 
giving  receipts,  and  laying  up  property  to  be  the  fuel 
for  the  last  fires;  but  you  gave  yourself  to  Christ 
with  all  your  heart,  and  became  the  historian  of  the  i 
world's  redemption. 

We  have  usually  thought  but  little  of  this  man.* 
He  is  modest  and  unobtrusive  in  his  record  in  speak- 
ing of  himself,  and  the  world  has  never  thought  or 
said  much  respecting  him,  though  his  name  has  been 
so  often  used,  nor  have  we  commonly  preached  about 


48  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

him,  because  he  hides  himself  behind  his  Lord  and 
Master.     But  look  at  his  claims  to  our  reverence. 

Is  there  any  other  such  composition  in  human  lan- 
guage as  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  from  his  inspired 
pen '? 

What  passage  stands  equal  in  the  Bible  with  any 
other  for  its  interest  and  grandeur'?  Is  it  not  the 
twenty-fifth  chapter  of  Matthew  1  "  When  the  Son 
of  man  shall  come  in  his  glory,  and  all  the  holy  an- 
gels with  him,  then  shall  he  sit  upon  the  throne  of  his 
glory.  And  before  him  shall  be  gathered  all  nations, 
and  he  shall  separate  them  one  from  another  as  a 
shepherd  divideth  his  sheep  from  the  goats."  Mil  tons 
and  Shakspeares  have  never  reached  the  awful  gran- 
deur nor  yet  the  beautiful  simplicity  of  the  man  who 
left  his  writing  desk  and  the  receipt  of  custom,  with 
his  soul  filled  with  love  to  Christ.  Wherever  on  the 
earth  the  gospel  rises  like  the  sun  in  heaven  upon 
the  nations,  Matthew  is  the  herald  of  his  Lord. 
While  meditating  this  sermon,  I  passed  through  the 
entry  of  the  Missionary  House  in  this  city,  and  saw 
a  pile  of  books  which  had  just  come  from  the  press. 
Opening  a  volume,  I  read,  "  The  Gospel  according  to 
Matthew,"  in  the  Choctaw  language.  The  coinci- 
dence of  the  discovery  with  the  preparation  of  this 
sermon  on  Matthew  deeply  affected  me  ;  I  said,  '  Here 
he  is,  on  his  way  to  the  Indians  of  the  new  world. 
When  he  left  his  receipt  of  custom  so  promptly  to 


THE  CALL  OF  MATTHEW.  49 

follow  his  Redeemer,  he  little  knew  what  glory  and 
honor  in  being  useful  were  involved  in  that  one  act. 
On  his  throne  in  heaven,  he  thinks  of  the  influence 
which  he  has  left  behind  him,  and  which  is  following 
him  in  tide  upon  tide  of  glory  to  the  day  of  judgment 
and  forever.  Many  a  time  he  has  thought  of  that 
moment  when  the  countenance  of  Christ  appeared  at 
his  place  of  business,  and  of  the  change  which  took 
place  in  his  experience  and  history,  when  at  the 
first  call  of  Christ  he  gave  up  every  thing  to  follow 
him.'  Let  the  amiable  rich  man  whom  Jesus  loved 
turn  sorrowful  away,  and  another  put  his  hand  to 
the  plow  and  look  back,  and  another  think  supreme- 
ly of  them  who  are  at  home  at  his  house ;  we  praise 
and  love,  and  may  we  imitate,  him  who  instantly 
arose,  left  all,  and  followed  Christ.  "  Them  that 
honor  me  I  will  honor."  "  There  is  no  man  that 
hath  left"  all  "for  my  sake  and  the  gospel's,  but  he 
shall  receive  a  hundred  fold  now  in  this  time,  with 
persecutions,  and  in  the  world  to  come  eternal  life." 
If  you  will  give  yourself,  with  all  your  heart,  and 
soul,  and  strength,  to  God,  no  tongue  can  tell  how 
useful  he  may  make  you  in  this  world,  and  M^hat  a 
happy  eternity  will  be  in  reserve  for  )=-ou,  and  through 
you  for  many  others.  Perhaps  in  some  humble  con- 
dition, or  it  maybe  merely  in  teaching  a  child,  at  home 
or  at  school,  you  may  set  influences  at  work  which 
will  swell  to  widening  circles  through  time.     When 


50  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

we  think  of  the  usefuhiess  and  happiness  here  and 
forever  of  being  supremely  consecrated  to  God,  it 
seems  strange  to  see  people  hesitating  and  afraid  to 
commit  themselves  in  this  thing.  Many  under  re- 
ligious impressions  are  bitterly  afflicted  at  the  thought 
of  being  Christians.  Instead  of  being  about  to  find 
themselves  heirs  of  God  and  joint  heirs  with  Christ, 
one  would  think  that  some  great  affliction  was  about 
to  befall  them. 

The  proposal  is  now  made,  that  you,  from  this  time, 
obey  the  voice  of  God  by  his  Spirit  and  your  con- 
science, and  consecrate  yourself  to  him,  through  re- 
pentance of  all  sin,  and  faith  in  the  Saviour  of  the 
world.  Never  did  any  one  become  a  Christian  who 
did  not  concentrate  all  his  thoughts  and  efforts  upon 
the  time  then  present.  You  are  far  more  acquainted 
with  Christ  than  Matthew  was  when  the  Saviour 
appeared  at  his  door ;  you  have  been  from  a  child 
familiar  with  his  whole  life,  and  with  his  sufferings 
and  death.  As  you  now  sit  and  hear  these  words, 
there  stands  one  whom  you  do  not  see,  looking  upon 
you  with  benign  face,  making  offers  of  eternal  im- 
portance to  you.  Strange,  indeed,  that  he  should 
think  of  you,  that  he  should  fix  his  desire  on  you ; 
but  this  is  like  him,  — he  is  seeking  even  you.  Will 
you  be  a  Christian  1  Perhaps  you  are  inclined  to  say, 
'  I  must  first  repent  and  believe ;  and  how  can  I  do  this 
at  once,  and  without  more  premeditation'?'     Kepent- 


THE  CALL  OF  MATTHEW.  51 

ance  is  the  sorrow  of  love  ;  you  do  not  repent  till  you 
begin  to  love,  neither  will  you  trust  in  Christ  till  you 
begin  to  feel  affection  toward  him.  Therefore,  if  you 
will  from  this  moment  fix  your  thoughts  on  Christ, 
and  give  yourself  to  him,  you  will  do  that  which  in- 
volves all  your  duty ;  —  and  what  will  Christ  do  for 
you  ■?  —  "  exceeding  abundantly  above  all  you  ask  or 
think ; "  but  especially  he  will  at  once  give  you  a  new 
heart,  which  will  have  all  right  feelings  in  it,  feelings 
which  you  have  tried  in  vain  to  exercise,  feelings 
which  you  never  have  had  and  never  can  have  until 
you  thus  unconditionally,  as  poor,  and  miserable,  and 
blind,  and  naked,  surrender  yourself  to  Christ,  and 
accept  him  as  he  is  offered  to  you  in  his  gospel. 

Finally.  The  history  of  Matthew  teaches  us  that 
we  make  our  own  choice  to  follow  or  to  refuse  Christ. 

It  has  always  been  so ;  it  will  be  so  with  you. 
Sincerely  and  affectionately  Christ  said,  "  Follow  me," 
to  many  who  made  excuses  as  freely  as  others  ac- 
cepted his  call.  Solemn  truth,  that  whatever  our 
destiny  for  eternity  shall  prove  to  be,  each  of  us  will 
have  decided  it  for  himself  Whatever  else  may  be 
true,  this  is  true,  and  nothing  is  true  which  is  incon- 
sistent with  it. 

It  is  affecting,  also,  to  think  that  Christ  does  not 
urge  us  to  choose  him  because  he  is  in  any  way  de- 
pendent upon  our  love  and  service.     He  will  have  no 


52  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

lack  of  friends  and  followers,  though  we  decline. 
The  history  of  redemption  will  be  perfect,  even  if  it 
does  not  include  the  history  of  our  salvation.  It 
makes  one  feel  insignificant  to  think  that  the  happi- 
ness of  heaven  will  be  complete  without  him ;  that 
regrets  at  his  absence,  the  mention  of  his  name,  and 
at  last  the  memory  of  him  will  be  wholly  absorbed 
in  the  blissful  experience  of  the  redeemed.  A  thou- 
sand years  hence,  a  mother,  a  wife,  a  sister,  a  child, 
will  still  remember  us  if  we  perish  ;  but  the  myriads 
of  myriads  in  heaven  will  be  perfectly  happy  without 
us.  Might  there  be  but  a  harp  hung  up  with  the 
drapery  of  mourning  upon  it,  a  kind  though  sad  me- 
morial of  me,  it  would  be  a  continual  drop  of  water 
in  my  future  pain ;  but  there  will  not  be  a  harp  to 
spare  for  such  a  purpose ;  there  will  be  some  re- 
deemed sinner  who  will  rehearse,  upon  those  very 
strings  to  which  my  voice  might  have  sung,  the  his- 
tory of  his  gracious  call  by  Christ,  his  happy  choice 
at  that  call,  its  consequences  in  a  useful  life,  escape 
from  the  company  and  torments  of  devils  and  damned 
men,  and  an  eternity  in  heaven. 

This  being  so,  I  would  not  pass  the  door  of  the 
place  where  you  sit,  I  would  not  lose  a  moment,  while 
Christ  stands  and  waits  for  your  answer,  without 
yielding  myself  to  his  call.  You  may  never  have 
another.  Will  you  be  a  Christian  1  It  will  cost  the 
surrender  to  Christ  of  all  that  you  have  and  are ;  it 


THE  CALL  OF  MATTHEW.  53 

will  be  a  mighty  change  indeed  that  will  make  you 
willing  to  be  a  humble,  affectionate,  childlike  be- 
liever in  Jesus,  and  bring  you,  as  the  same  change 
brought  Saul  of  Tarsus,  into  the  company  and  com- 
munion of  praying  people.  Christ  can  make  that 
change  for  you  in  a  moment.  Unless  it  is  made,  you 
can  not  be  saved.  Important  moment !  a  soul  is  now 
to  decide  whether  to  follow  Christ  or  to  refuse  him. 
Future  ages  in  heaven  or  hell !  your  history  with  some 
soul  will  be  but  the  continued  history  of  this  hour ! 
Saviour,  hast  thou  no  word  to  turn  the  scale  ?  —  "All 

THAT     THE    FaTHER    HATH    GIVEN    ME    SHALL    COME    TO 

ME,    AND    HIM    THAT    COMETH    UNTO    ME    I    WILL    IN    NO 

WISE    CAST   OUT." 

5« 


SERMON  III. 


THE  WIDOW  OF  NAIN  AND  HER  SON. 


LUItE  VII.  14,  15. 


AND  HE  SAID,  YOUNG  MAN,  I  SAY  TJNTO  THEE,  ARISE.  AND  HE  THAT  WAS 
DEAD  SAT  UP,  AND  BEGAN  TO  SPEAK.  AND  HE  DELIVERED  HIM  TO  HIS 
MOTHER. 

If  ttere  is  one  on  earth  who  more  than  another 
is  an  object  of  sympathy  blending  with  respect  and 
almost  reverence,  it  is  such  a  one  as  the  inspired 
penman  calls  a  widow  indeed.  The  death  of  her  com- 
panion is  not  only  the  bitterest  grief,  but  an  abiding 
calamity,  her  sorrow  inconsolable,  her  loss  irreparable, 
and  her  journey  to  the  tomb  a  pathway  on  which  the 
cypress  and  yew  tree  suffer  none  but  chance  wild 
flowers  to  appear.  God  only  knows  the  depths  of 
thought  and  feeling  which  bereavement  opens  in  the 
soul  of  such  a  mourner ;  and  God  himself  has  shown 
at  once  his  sense  of  her  unparalleled  sorrow  and 
his  own  condescension  in  giving  himself  the  name 
of  "Judge  of  the  widow." 

The  woman  mentioned  in  the  text  was  probably 

(54) 


THE  WIDOW  OF  NAIN  AND  HER  SON.         55 

known  in  the  city  where  she  lived  as  a  widow  indeed, 
but  whose  bitter  grief  at  the  loss  of  her  companion 
had  been  somewhat  assuaged,  because  God  had  left 
her  a  son  to  be  her  stay  and  staff.  On  him  that 
mother  had  bestowed  the  mingled  affections  of  a 
parent  and  a  bereaved  wife ;  he  was  the  prop  of  her 
house,  her  defender  and  provider  ;  if  not  the  image 
of  his  father,  the  memorial  to  her  of  him  who  in  her 
youth  was  her  joy  and  crown.  It  would  seem  that 
he  had  not  yet  found  a  home  away  from  her  ;  dutiful 
and  affectionate,  he  still  devoted  himself  to  her  com- 
fort ;  she  felt  that  the  grave  had  not  robbed  her  of 
every  thing.  But  death  is  now  in  her  house  again, 
not  to  release  her  from  a  world  of  suffering,  but  to 
quench  her  last  coal,  to  crush  her  heart  with  a  more 
aggravated  grief  She  must  follow  her  son  to  the 
place  where  the  father  sleeps,  and  henceforth  divide, 
yet  multiply,  her  grief  between  two  graves.  Her  son, 
though  young,  was  not  a  child,  "  There  was  a  dead 
man  carried  out."  He  was  knoAvn  in  the  city.  He 
was  like  one  of  the  familiar  shade  trees  of  the  place, 
which  could  not  be  struck  with  lightning  without 
exciting  the  popular  sorrow.  All  loved  him  as  a 
widow's  good  son ;  and  when  he  died,  much  people 
of  the  city  was  with  her.  With  the  instinctive  kind- 
ness of  the  human  heart  toward  helpless  and  peculiar 
grief,  they  went  with  her  to  see  him  buried,  but  not 
one  of  them  could  say  a  word  that  could  reach  her 


56  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

wound,  not  one  of  tlicm  could  "  by  any  means  de- 
liver his  soul  from  death,  or  give  to  God  a  ransom  for 
him  that  he  should  not  see  death,  and  that  his  eyes 
should  be  enlightened  with  the  light  of  the  living." 
They  reached  the  gate  of  the  city ;  it  was  opened  for 
one  whose  feet,  they  thought,  would  never  tread  its 
threshold  any  more.  The  opening  prospect  without 
the  gate  revealing  to  the  mother  the  wide  M'orld  in 
which  she  was  now,  as  it  were,  a  second  time  a  widow, 
was  the  occasion  of  a  new  burst  of  grief  Remorse- 
less death  and  the  yawning  grave  heeded  not  her 
tears.  On  they  went  to  bury  the  widow's  son,  and 
with  him  his  mother's  hopes  and  peace. 

A  little  group  followed  by  a  crowd  drew  near,  and 
together  they  met  the  funeral  train.  The  funeral,  in- 
deed, was  no  uncommon  sight,  but  there  was  some- 
thing in  the  chief  mourner's  weeping,  and  in  the 
whole  procession,  which  moved  even  a  common  spec- 
tator. There  was  one  in  that  group  who  had  ordered 
the  time  and  circumstances  of  his  arrival  at  the  gate 
of  the  city  with  a  view  to  meet  that  funeral  train. 
Undistinguished  by  any  form  or  comeliness,  yet  to  one 
who  knew  him  his  approach  to  that  pageantry  of 
death  was  fearfully  sublime.  He  is  death's  great  foe ; 
he  is  the  Resurrection  and  the  Life ;  all  that  are  in 
their  graves  are  to  hear  his  voice  and  obey  his  sum- 
mons. Drawing  near  to  the  afflicted  woman  aban- 
doned to  her  grief,  he  spoke  calm  words  as  only  he 


THE  WIDOW  OF  NAIN  AND  HER  SON.         57 

can  speak,  whether  to  the  boisterous  waves  or  the 
surges  of  the  mind.  The  mourner  felt  that  the  stran- 
ger had  power  to  comfort  her  like  no  one  else,  for 
with  authority  he  laid  a  simple  touch  upon  the  bier, 
and  they  that  bare  it  stood  still.  What  a  moment ! 
what  silence !  what  expectation  !  With  the  same  calm 
voice  which  soothed  the  mother,  he  spoke  again. 
Who  could  tell  what  he  intended  to  do,  or  why  he 
should  stop  a  funeral  procession  to  which  every 
passer,  and  vehicle,  and  military  band  of  music,  and 
shouting  children  involuntarily  give  respectful  dis- 
tance, and  pass  and  suffer  to  pass  in  silence  1  This 
humble  stranger,  —  what  will  he  presume  to  do  ? 
He  speaks :  "  Young  man,  I  say  unto  thee,  Arise." 
No  sooner  were  these  words  uttered  than  he  that  was 
dead  sat  up,  and  straightway  began  to  speak.  Inco- 
herent, perhaps,  were  those  words,  like  the  last  words 
of  a  dream  with  which  a  man  awakes ;  but  they  were 
words,  and  they  made  known  that  the  dead  was  alive. 
But  this  was  not  enough.  "And  he  delivered  him  to 
his  mother."  More  is  conveyed  by  those  words  than 
may  at  first  appear.  Christ  did  not  retire,  leaving  the 
mother  to  awake  as  she  might  from  the  delirium  of 
mingled  astonishment  and  fear ;  his  work  was  not 
done ;  he  could  not  be  satisfied  till  he  had  assured  that 
mourner  that  her  son  was  alive ;  he  stood  by,  without 
doubt,  controlling  the  emotions  of  those  hearts  in 
which  the  sudden  flood  of  joy  might  have  destroyed 


58  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

reason.  "He  delivered  him  to  his  mother,"  —  and 
thus  he  loved  them  unto  the  end. 

There  can  be  no  question  that  Death  had  done  his 
work  upon  the  youth  who  lay  on  that  bier.  The  in- 
spired writer  says,  "There  was  a  dead  man  carried 
out ;  "  and  again  he  says,  "  He  that  was  dead  sat  up." 
When  Christ  raised  the  ruler's  daughter,  he  told  them 
she  was  not  dead,  but  sleeping.  He  never  assumed  to 
do  that  which  he  did  not  in  reality  do.  The  narrative 
before  us  makes  it  certain  that  the  dead  was  raised. 
The  departed  spirit  heard  the  Saviour's  voice ;  from 
its  separate  abode  it  came  forth,  reentered  its  deserted 
tabernacle,  and  lived  on  earth  again.  No  human  fancy 
can  tell  what  its  experience  had  been  within  the  vail ; 
but  from  the  scenes  which  no  man  can  see  and  live, 
it  came  back  at  the  voice  of  Him  who  has  the  keys  of 
death.  No  wonder  that,  as  the  historian  adds,  "  great 
fear  came  upon  all."  Thei'e  was  a  man,  with  every 
outward  resemblance  to  any  Mother  man,  extending  his 
authority  into  the  world  of  spirits,  and  calling  back 
a  departed  soul  from  the  state  wjiere  death  had  left  it 
and  judgment  was  to  find  it. 

We  have  no  record  of  the  ensuing  life  of  this  young 
man.  While  the  Bible  tells  us  of  several  cases  in 
which  the  dead  were  raised,  it  says  not  one  word  of 
that  which  they  saw  within  the  vail.  Curiosity  was, 
no  doubt,  busy  in  the  circle  of  their  friends  and  fel- 
low-citizens to  learn  something  of   their  experience. 


THE   WIDOW  OF  XAIN  AND  IIER  SON.  59 

No  writer  without  the  restraint  and  guidance  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  would  have  failed  to  gratify  human  curi- 
osity on  such  a  subject ;  it  would  have  been  prom- 
inent in  his  thoughts  ;  he  would  have  known  that  it 
was  prominent  in  the  thoughts  of  all  above  every 
thing  else,  and  the  history  of  this  young  man's  resur- 
rection would  have  been  followed  by  a  narrative  of 
things  which  he  saw  and  heard  after  death.  The  only 
impression  which  the  narrative  was  intended  to  con- 
vey, besides  its  illustration  of  the  Saviour  s  power,  was 
the  friendliness  of  Christ  in  his  compassion  to  a 
widowed  mother,  which  led  him  even  to  call  back 
a  departed  soul,  and  thus  restore  to  a  widow  her 
only  son. 

But  in  more  ways  than  one  is  this  instance  of  the 
Sa\dour's  kindness  and  power  capable  of  application 
to  the  condition  of  a  widow,  and  to  the  son  of  a 
widow.  Of  all  the  sights  that  meet  the  eye,  nothing 
goes  to  the  heart  of  one  who  loves  his  fellow-men, 
with  a  stronger  appeal,  than  the  young  men  who  are 
coming  to  the  city  frpjn  other  places,  leaving  their 
parents'  roof,  the  restraints  of  home,  and  subjecting 
themselves  to  the  influences  of  a  great  place.  When 
Paul  enumerates  his  perils  in  the  wilderness,  in  the 
sea,  among  robbers  and  false  brethren,  he  speaks  also 
of  "  perils  in  the  city."  If  parents,  ignorant  of  city 
life,  knew  one  half  of  the  meaning  of  that  expression, 
they  would  have  far  less  peace,  their  sleep  would  be 


60  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

more  frequently  disturbed  in  thinking  of  these  sons, 
and  for  a  refuge  they  would  be  more  instant  in  prayer. 
Yet  shall  it  be  forgotten  that  young  men  are  convert- 
ed and  become  eminently  useful  members  of  churches, 
in  cities ;  that  some  who  had  continued  impenitent 
under  the  most  favorable  and  hopeful  circumstances 
of  a  quiet,  virtuous  home  in  the  country,  find  salva- 
tion amidst  the  snares  and  hinderances  of  city  life  1 
The  almighty  Spirit  is  not  confined  to  places  nor  to 
circumstances. 

If  Jesus  Christ  should  pass  along  our  streets  he 
would  see  in  the  warerooms,  and  counting  houses,  and 
in  the  great  throng,  many  and  many  a  youth  w^ho 
would  excite  his  interest  as  much  as  did  the  youth  on 
his  bier,  and  for  somewhat  the  same  reason.  Many 
of  the  young  men  among  us  are  sons  of  widows,  and 
who,  in  consequence  of  the  death  of  their  fathers, 
have  come  to  this  place  to  engage  in  business.  The 
Saviour  looks  on  these  young  men  with  a  different 
eye  from  that  with  which  many  regard  them ;  and  to 
illustrate  this  we  will  now  attend  to  some  things  which 
the  narrative  before  us  brings  to  mind.     Consider,  — 

I.  The  thoughts  and  feelings  tvith  which  Christ 
entered  the  city  of  Nain. 

When  people  go  to  a  city,  their  thoughts  are  full 
of  the  exciting  objects  which  they  see  there.  The 
contrast  between  the  stillness  of  their  own  place  of 


THE  WIDOW  OF  XAIN  AND  HER  SON.         61 

residence,  and  the  busy  multitudes,  and  the  noise  of 
the  place  as  they  first  set  foot  in  it,  absorbs  their 
minds.  Soon  the  glare  of  the  place  is  all  around 
them ;  display  meets  them  at  every  turn ;  the  streets 
are  filled  with  living  exhibitions  of  fashion  and  taste, 
the  shops  flash  upon  the  senses  their  rich  and  showy 
offerings  to  the  pride  of  life.  Many,  as  they  enter 
such  a  place,  meeting  a  funeral,  would  feel  a  moment- 
ary sadness  at  the  contrast  of  the  sight  with  their  own 
eager  thoughts,  now  pressing  on  to  mingle  in  the  whirl 
of  the  city ;  and  some  would  wonder  who  it  is  that 
now  no  more  can  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  such  a  place. 
The  noise  of  the  slow  hearse  is  not  sooner  passed 
away  from  their  ears  than  the  thought  of  death  from 
their  hearts ;  and  then  the  living  tide  and  gulf  of 
business  and  fashion  receives  them,  like  drops  of  rain, 
to  mingle  and  be  lost  in  it. 

The  Saviour  entered  the  city  of  Nain  with  different 
feelings  and  thoughts,  and  was  affected,  and  deeply  so, 
by  a  sight  which  men  generally  avoid.  The  sight  of 
a  funeral  in  a  city  is  impressive  to  a  serious  mind. 
The  excitements  of  business  and  pleasure  can  not 
evade  the  arrest  of  Death ;  beauty  can  not  tempt  him ; 
riches  can  not  bribe  him ;  his  throne  is  in  the  city ; 
his  throne  is  in  every  village :  on  his  realms  the  sun 
never  sets.  As  the  mourners  carry  the  deceased  from 
the  noise  and  tumult  of  the  city  to  the  silent  grave, 
one  who  has  learned  to  conquer  death  by  faith  in 


62  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

Christ  can  not  fail  to  look  upon  the  sight  with  deep 
interest.  To  the  eye  of  Christ  it  was  an  affecting 
spectacle,  and  he  drew  near  to  behold  it.  His  pur- 
pose in  visiting  the  city  was  not  to  indulge  in  its  op- 
portunities of  gain  or  pleasure,  but  to  do  the  w  ork  of 
God ;  and  when  he  saw  the  funeral  his  heart  was 
moved  with  compassion.  Another  soul,  for  whom  he 
was  "  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  w^orld,"  had 
gone  to  its  last  account.  Death,  his  enemy  and  ours, 
had  gained  another  victim  in  the  city,  and  had 
plunged  another  house  into  mourning,  and  Christ 
could  not  see  such  a  sight  and  not  be  more  interested 
in  it  than  by  all  which  the  world  could  offer  to  his 
senses.  Do  we  not  need  the  spirit  of  the  Saviour  in 
living  in  a  cityl  What  are  the  things  that  chiefly 
engage  our  thoughts  here  1  If  it  be  literature ;  if  it 
be  to  buy  and  sell;  if  it  be  to  admire  or  be  admired, 
to  imitate  the  fashions,  to  enjoy  the  concerts,  and  lec- 
tures, and  shows ;  if  it  be  to  gratify  the  tastes,  or  to 
give  children  the  accomplishments  of  elegant  life,  — 
we  have  abundant  opportunities  for  all  this  here ;  but 
these  are  not  most  worthy  of  a  Christian,  nor  are  they 
the  things  for  which  we  ought  to  live,  nor  with  which 
our  hearts  will  be  chiefly  filled  if  we  have  the  spirit 
of  the  Saviour.  The  death  and  funeral  of  a  widow's 
son  here  is  a  more  interesting,  important,  and  instruc- 
tive event  than  any  thing  that  charms  the  heart  of  the 
sons  and  daughters  of  a  gay  world.     We  must  not 


THE  WIDOW  OF  NAIN  AND  HER  SON.        63 

suffer  ourselves  to  be  lost  in  the  whirl  which  every 
thing  partakes  of  in  the  rush  of  business  and  popula- 
tion to  the  city.  Here  we  are  to  serve  God.  Here 
is  the  vineyard  which  we  are  to  cultivate.  We  must 
fix  our  thoughts  on  individuals,  and  not  be  overcome 
by  the  thought  of  multitudes,  and  so  feel  weak  and 
inefficient.  We  may  well  say,  as  Jehoshaphat  did  at 
the  sight  of  the  legions  of  Ammon,  Moab,  and  Mount 
Seir,  "We  have  no  might  against  this  great  company, 
neither  know  we  what  to  do."  Our  business  is  not 
to  make  the  place  at  once  what  it  should  be,  but  to 
labor  in  individual  cases  to  do  the  good  which  lies 
ready  at  our  hands,  while  we  cooperate  gladly  with 
every  good  effort  to  reach  and  affect  classes.  In  order 
to  do  this,  we  must  endeavor  to  feel  and  act  like  Christ 
as  he  went  from  place  to  place,  and  as  he  entered  into 
cities.  With  our  hearts  fixed  on  heaven  we  must  pass 
along,  remembering  that  here  we  have  no  continuing 
city.  With  our  minds  filled  with  the  importance  of 
the  soul  and  of  eternity,  we  must  have  chief  regard  to 
the  spiritual  interests  of  men. 

Before  we  reach  the  more  specific  object  which  the 
discourse  contemplates,  let  us  consider 

II,  The  discriminating  compassion  and  tenderness 
of  Christ. 

He  saw  this  widowed  mother  as  she  bent  in  sorrow 
at  the  bier  which  carried  her  son.     She  could   not 


64  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

restrain  her  grief;  it  showed  itself  in  all  her  motions, 
her  bowed  form,  her  unequal  step,  her  involuntary- 
pause,  her  disregard  of  every  thing  about  her,  and  her 
whole  abandonment  to  woe.  He  knew  who  she  was, 
and  whom  she  had  lost,  for  he  knew  all  things  ;  and 
he  directed  his  way  to  that  city  just  at  that  time,  to 
meet  this  funeral.  "And  he  said  unto  her.  Weep 
not."  He  noticed  her  weeping ;  he  wiped  away  her 
tears. 

There  are  few  things  in  Christ  more  interesting  than 
that  appreciation  of  our  condition  and  feelings  which 
he  showed  when  on  earth.  No  friend  is  to  you  like 
one  who,  when  you  are  in  difficulty  and  trouble,  per- 
fectly understands  your  case,  It  aggravates  an  afflic- 
tion to  deal  with  those  who  can  not  enter  into  your 
feelings;  who  treat  them  with  an  inappropriate  re- 
mark, or  a  smile,  or  with  silence,  it  may  be  with  cold- 
ness, or  even  with  something  bordering  upon  an  un- 
kind insinuation,  or  upbraiding ;  or  who,  if  their 
intentions  are  good,  are  totally  unqualified  to  under- 
stand you ;  or  who  inconsiderately  rehearse  long  and 
circumstantial  narratives  of  their  own  experience,  or 
of  things  in  which  you  can  not  feel  the  slightest  in- 
terest. There  are  many  who  will  sympathize  with 
you ;  but  it  is  rare  to  meet  with  one  who  is  wholly 
congenial  to  your  heart,  who  does  not  need  to  have 
you  translate  every  thing,  nor  even  to  say  all  you 
think,  but  who  will  anticipate  it  by  his  actions,  or 


THE  WIDOW  OF  NAIN  AND  HER  SON.         65 

looks,  or  words,  and  make  you  feel  that  he  knows  you 
almost  better  than  you  know  yourself.  Such  a  friend 
is  the  Saviour.  He  is  as  near  to  us  now  as  he  was 
to  any  object  of  his  compassion  when  he  was  on  earth ; 
and  while  men  change,  Jesus  Christ  is  the  same  yes- 
terday, to-day,  and  forever.  There  is  not  a  circum- 
stance in  your  condition,  however  delicate  and  private, 
but  the  Saviour  knows  it,  and  can  appreciate  it.  There 
is  no  peculiar  poignancy  in  your  sufferings  but  he  un- 
derstands it,  and  pities  you.  There  is  no  trial  which 
you  are  unable  and  unwilling  to  explain  to  any  earth- 
ly friend,  which  you  may  not  lay  before  him,  and  he 
will  treat  you  with  a  tenderness  which  none  but  God 
can  feel.  By  the  side  of  every  sick  and  dying  bed,  in 
the  chamber  of  protracted  and  exhausting  illness,  in 
every  house  of  mourning,  Christ  is  present ;  and  the 
strangest  thing  in  our  estrangement  from  God  is  that 
we  think  so  little  of  what  we  chiefly  need  —  the  sym- 
pathy and  readiness  to  help  us  which  there  is  in  Jesus 
Christ. 

We  have  all  received  from  Christ  certain  kind 
acts  which  made  us  very  happy  at  the  time,  a  certain 
gratification  of  our  feelings,  pleasing  coincidences  be- 
tween our  wishes  and  the  events  of  life,  and  all  of  them 
from  those  hands  which  were  nailed  to  the  cross  for 
us,  and  have  ever  since  been  raised  to  intercede  for  us. 
What  effect  have  these  things  had  upon  our  feelings 
and  conduct  ?     Have  they  ever  awakened  in  us  strong, 

6* 


66  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

impulsive  love  and  gratitude,  like  great  kindnesses 
from  our  friends  ?  Have  we  ever  felt  as  that  grateful, 
happy  disciple  did  when  the  large  draught  of  fishes 
made  his  company  say,  "  It  is  the  Lord !  "  Beautiful 
instance  of  grateful  joy  and  ardent  love,  —  "  he  girt 
his  fisher's  coat  unto  him,  and  did  cast  himself  into  the 
sea."  Christ  has  done  enough  for  each  of  us  in  our 
temporal  affairs  to  make  us  throw  ourselves,  with  the 
same  impulsive  feelings,  before  him,  heedless  of  men's 
opinions  or  of  what  it  might  cost.  If  we  knew  what 
kind  things  Christ  has  done  for  us  in  that  same  spirit 
of  compassion  and  tenderness  with  which  he  met  this 
widow  and  made  that  bier  stand  still,  we  should  think 
that  we  had  very  hard  and  wicked  hearts  to  have  neg- 
lected and  rejected  him.  May  our  eyes  no  longer  be 
holden  that  we  should  not  see  him.  We  shall  need 
to  know  him  in  coming  scenes  of  our  lives.  We  shall 
meet  with  trials  which  no  love  but  his  can  help  us  en- 
dure. We  may  follow  a  bier  which,  if  Christ  does  not 
meet  the  funeral,  will  carry  our  hearts  and  hopes  to 
the  grave,  and  it  will  be  the  survivor  that  dies.  Had 
we  the  universe  to  draw  from  to  make  you  happy,  we 
would  do  nothing  but  this,  make  you  "  to  comprehend 
with  all  saints  what  is  the  breadth,  and  length,  and 
depth,  and  height,  and  to  know  the  love  of  Christ 
which  passeth  knowledge." 
We  are  to  consider, — 


THE  WIDOW  OF  NAIN  AND  HER  SON.         67 

III.  The  feelings  and  conduct  of  Christ  toward  a 
widoiv's  son. 

Had  he  not  been  a  widow's  son,  it  is  probable  that 
(/hrist  would  not  have  raised  him  from  the  dead.  H*ad 
Christ  seen  that  mother  sustained  and  comforted  by 
her  husband,  he  might  have  pitied  them  both,  but  he 
would  not  have  felt  as  he  did  when  he  knew  that  this 
dead  youth  was  the  only  son  of  his  mother,  and  she  a 
widow. 

They  who  stand  in  the  relation  of  widows'  sons  are 
objects  of  involuntary  affection  and  interest  to  all  who 
know  them.  Let  men  see  a  youth  acting  his  part  well 
in  this  relation,  virtuous,  frugal,  circumspect,  not 
ashamed  of  his  amiable  regard  for  his  mother,  but 
touched  with  a  sense  6f  her  loneliness  and  sorrow, 
and  doing  all  in  his  power  to  comfort  and  help  her, 
and  that  youth  has  access  at  once  to  the  confidence 
and  love  of  men.  It  is  not  an  unmeaning  declaration, 
that  "Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother"  "is  the  first 
commandment  with  promise,"  and  when  God  enjoins 
obedience  to  that  commandment  by  saying,  "  that  it 
may  be  well  with  thee,  and  that  thou  mayest  live  long 
on  the  earth,"  he  makes  a  promise,  to  fulfill  which, 
in  one  instance,  he  raised  a  widow's  son  from  the  dead. 
For,  if  that  young  man  had  been  a  trial  to  his  mother, 
would  Christ  have  raised  him  to  life  1  Rather  would 
he  not  have  suffered  the  funeral  to  pass  dn?  It  was 
the  relation  which  the  good  son  bore  to  his  parent  that 


68  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

was  recognized  by  Christ  in  this  transaction ;  and 
when  a  youth  sustains  this  relation  as  he  ought,  he 
may  be  sure  that  he  will  have  his  Saviour's  blessing 
in  this  world,  and,  if  he  also  loves  and  serves  the  best 
of  friends,  in  the  world  which  is  to  come. 

We  know  that  young  men  naturally  shrink  from 
manifesting  tenderness  of  feeling  ;  they  feel  that  filial 
love  or  fraternal  affection  will  give  the  impression  of 
softness  of  character,  and  the  want  of  a  certain  man- 
liness to  which  the  young  aspire.  None  whose  es- 
teem is  desirable  think  less  of  a  youth  who  is  suscep- 
tible to  the  influences  of  domestic  ties.  Others  may 
think  it  strange  that  he  runs  not  with  them  to  the 
same  excess  of  riot ;  for  many  deem  it  manly  to  curse 
and  swear,  indulge  expensive  habits,  and  to  be  inde- 
pendent of  all  restraints ;  and  therefore  the  appren- 
tice who  will  best  ridicule  his  master,  and  invent  the 
most  expressive  nickname  for  him,  and  show  least  of 
those  compunctions  of  feeling  which  a  virtuous  youth 
feels  from  a  regard  to  parents  and  sisters,  to  God  and 
virtue,  generally  gets  the  most  of  their  vulgar  ap- 
plause. That  youth  has  most  of  true  courage  who 
will  fear  God  rather  than  man.  It  is  cowardice,  and 
not  courage,  M-hich  leads  the  young  to  talk  profanely 
and  recklessly  before  others,  to  join  in  a  laugh  at  the 
expense  of  men  or  things  which  he  secretly  respects, 
or  to  indulge  in  expenses  or  vices  for  fear  of  being 
called  mean.     He  who  fears  God  and  seeks  his  appro- 


THE  WIDOW  OF  NAIN  AND  HER  SON.        69 

bation,  and  therefore  disregards  the  opinions  and  slurs 
of  the  wicked,  is  a  good  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ ;  and 
that  youth  who  is  touched  by  a  mother's  love,  and 
who  remembers  that  absent  parent  amidst  the  perils 
of  the  city,  not  only  has  one  of  the  greatest  safeguards 
against  evil,  but  shows  himself  susceptible  of  feelings 
which  will  make  him  beloved  and  honored  among 
men.  If  you  are  a  widow's  son,  you  have  not  only 
the  strongest  inducements  to  be  good,  but  the  best 
of  opportunities  to  cultivate  feelings  and  sentiments 
which  will  form  your  character  to  much  that  is  beau- 
tiful and  praiseworthy,  and  to  secure  the  notice  and 
love  of  God  your  Saviour.  That  Saviour  knows  you, 
beloved  young  friend,  and  your  widowed  parent. 
Prayers  unheard  by  you,  tears  which  give  place  to 
smiles  at  your  approach,  are  heard  and  seen  by  her 
Saviour,  your  Friend;  and  now,  for  her  sake,  he  com- 
passes your  path  and  your  lying  down,  and  is  ac- 
quainted with  all  your  ways. 

That  widowed  mother,  we  venture  to  say,  is  a 
Christian.  Perhaps  you  are  all  to  her  that  she  can 
ask,  except  in  one  thing ;  and  that  one  thing  is  of 
such  a  nature  that  every  thing  else  avails  her  nothing 
till  this  is  fulfilled.  There  is  many  a  widowed  moth- 
er who  sees  her  beloved  son  advancing  in  life  without 
God  for  his  portion,  and  with  no  hope  of  heaven. 
He  may  be  a  most  excellent  son,  but  that  can  not  save 
his  soul.     Christ   says,    "He    that   loveth   father  or 


70  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

mother  more  than  me  is  not  worthy  of  me."  The 
anxiety  of  that  mother  in  her  daily  and  nightly  prayers 
for  her  son,  as  she  thinks  of  his  exposure  to  death  and 
the  loss  of  his  soul,  none  but  Christ  knows  or  can 
fully  understand.  Many  a  time  she  has  that  son  in 
her  thoughts  upon  his  bier,  and  is  following  him  in 
imagination  to  his  hopeless  grave ;  and  did  not  Christ 
draw  near  to  her  and  support  her  in  her  fears,  she 
could  not  endure  her  sorroAV.  If  the  son  of  a  wid- 
owed mother  wishes  to  give  the  greatest  joy  which 
earth  ever  knows,  let  him  tell  that  mother  that  he  has 
chosen  God  for  his  portion.  A  letter  which  should 
communicate  such  intelligence  would  be  a  greater 
treasure  to  her  than  the  title  deed  to  great  possessions. 
Among  her  earnest  thoughts  and  feelings  she  would 
say, '  Does  his  father  know  that  he  has  become  a  Chris- 
tian 1  What  must  his  joy,  even  in  heaven,  be  to  hear 
that  his  son  is  now  an  heir  of  heaven  with  us ! '  We 
envy  that  young  man  who  has  it  in  his  power  to  com- 
municate such  bliss  on  earth ;  to  make  a  widowed 
mother  feel  that  now  she  is  the  happiest  creature  out 
of  heaven  ;  to  make  a  glorified  father  cast  his  crown 
at  his  Saviour's  feet  with  a  new  tide  of  joy  and  grat- 
itude which  no  experience  in  heaven  has  given  him. 

I  hear  a  youth  as  he  sighs  and  says,  '  My  mother 
is  dead.'  O,  is  she  deadl  Is  your  mother  dead? 
Then  you  can  not  lighten  her  earthly  sorrow  by  your 
conversion.     But  take  courage ;  she  is  not  out  of  the 


THE  WIDOW  OF  NAIN  AND  HER  SON.         71 

reach  of  your  power  to  make  her  happy.  We  fancy 
we  see  that  mother  in  heaven,  whose  face,  radiant  with 
happiness,  still  seems  to  wear  an  expression  as  though 
she  were  expecting  something  more.  They  tell  her, 
'  Your  son  has  a  happy  home.'  She  is  unmoved  while 
she  hears  this.  They  tell  her,  '  Your  son  is  rich ; ' 
she  hears  it  with  an  appearance  of  sadness.  They  say 
to  her,  '  Your  son  is  eminent  for  his  talents  and  ac- 
quirements ;  his  praise  is  on  the  lips  of  all.'  How  is 
this  ]  Can  nothing  move  that  parent  which  relates 
to  your  prosperity  1  A  ministering  angel  reaches 
heaven,  drops  his  swift  pinions  at  the  door  of  her 
mansion,  or  finds  her  out  in  some  celestial  circle,  and 
cries,  '  Woman,  behold,  he  prayeth  ! '  Heaven  for 
a  moment  now  seems  a  heaven  of  heavens  to  her. 
Enviable  privilege  of  a  child  who  can  send  such  bliss 
into  a  parent's  heart  in  heaven  !  Happier  he  who  by 
his  timely  conversion  can  keep  a  widowed  mother's 
gray  hairs  from  going  down  with  sorrow  to  the  grave, 
and  smooth  the  dying  pillow  of  her  who  smoothed 
his  infant  pillow  and  watched  over  his  childhood,  by 
giving  her  the  assurance,  as  she  enters  heaven,  that 
he  loves  and  serves  her  Redeemer,  that  he  will  be 
useful  here,  and  meet  her  before  the  throne. 

O  Saviour,  hear  the  weeping  and  supplication  of 
her  whose  son  may  at  this  moment  be  hearing  these 
words.  Behold  him  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins,  for- 
saking the  guide  of  his  youth,  his  own  friend,  and 


72  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

his  father's  friend,  and  the  covenant  of  his  God. 
Take  him  by  the  hand,  and  say,  "  Young  man,  I  say 
unto  thee,  Arise."  Come,  touch  this  bier,  which  carries 
a  widow's  son  to  the  second  deatli.  It  is  enough  to 
be  a  lone,  desolate  widow.  Give  her  this  son,  the  joy 
and  pride  of  him  who  was  her  husband  and  his  father, 
but  who  has  left  her  on  this  thorny  pathway  to  the 
grave.  Give  her  this  son,  that  she  may  give  him  to 
thy  service,  and  herself  be  comforted  under  thy  stroke. 
Let  not  this  funeral  pass  on  in  thy  sight,  and  thou  dis- 
regard our  prayer. 

Why  do  we  say  this  ]  The  Saviour  has  spoken ; 
he  has  had  compassion ;  he  speaks  at  this  moment  to 
him  who  is  dead  in  sin :  "  Young  man,  I  say  unto 
thee.  Arise."  The  dead  in  sin  hear  his  voice,  indeed, 
but  they  can  resist  it,  which  the  dead  body  and  the 
departed  soul  can  not  do.  Having  compassion  on 
that  loving,  weeping  parent,  the  Saviour's  hand  is 
stretched  out  toward  you.  Avail  yourself  of  a 
mother's  prayers,  and  say,  '  O  Lord,  truly  I  am  thy 
servant ;  I  am  thy  servant  and  the  son  of  thine  hand- 
maid ;  thou  hast  loosed  my  bonds.'  Pie  will  raise  you 
now  from  death  in  trespasses  and  sins,  which  is  infinite- 
ly more  important  than  the  return  of  this  youth  in 
the  text  to  finish  the  remnant  of  his  years.  Whether 
you  now  hear  or  disregard  that  word,  you  will  one 
day  hear  it  at  your  grave :  "  Young  man,  I  say  un- 
to thee,   Arise."      What  scenes,  joyful  or  sad,  and 


THE  WIDOW  OF  NAIN  AND  HER  SON.  73 

whether  greetings  with  no  partings,  shall  take  place 
at  your  family  tomb,  may  depend  upon  your  present 
treatment  of  the  Saviour's  call.  "Awake,  thou 
that  sleepest,  and  arise  from  the  dead,  and 
Christ  shall  give  thee  life." 

T 


SERMON  IV. 


CONVERSION  OF  ZACCHEUS. 


LUKE  XIX.  5,  6. 

AND  WHEN  JESUS  CAME  TO  THE  PLACE,  HE  LOOKED  UP,  AND  SAW  HIM,  AND 
SAID  UNTO  HIM,  ZACCHEUS,  MAKE  HASTE,  AND  COME  DOWN;  FOR  TO-DAY 
I   MUST  ABIDE   AT  THY  HOUSE. 

AND   HE  MADE  HASTE,   AND   CAME  DOWN,   AND   RECEIVED  HIM  JOYFULLY. 

The  conversion  of  Zaccheus  affords  a  striking  il- 
lustration of  the  kindness  of  Christ  as  a  Friend  of 
sinners. 

The  man  before  us  was  the  chief  among  the  pub- 
licans. Of  these  there  were  two  classes;  one,  an 
order  of  knights,  respectable,  and  generally  mentioned 
with  honor.  The  other  class  were  deputy  assessors 
and  collectors.  They  gave  their  bonds  for  a  certain 
sum,  and  then,  in  many  cases,  enriched  themselves  by 
unjust  exactions.  A  publican  of  this  class  was  there- 
fore odious,  and  the  name  was  a  proverb.  Christ 
himself  used  the  name  in  that  manner :  "  Let  him  be 
unto  thee  as  a  heathen  man  and  a  publican."  Theoc- 
ritus, a  poet,  being  asked  which  was  the  most  cruel 

(74) 


CONVERSION  OF  ZACCHEUS.  75 

of  beasts,  said,  "  Of  the  beasts  of  the  wilderness,  the 
bear  and  the  lion,  and  of  the  beasts  of  the  city,  the 
publican  and  the  parasite,"  or  the  designing  flatterer. 
These  publicans  were  for  the  most  part  foreigners. 
When  a  Jew  became  a  publican,  he  was,  of  course, 
looked  upon  as  a  vile  traitor,  and  was  so  abhorred 
that  he  was  not  permitted  to  enter  the  temple  or 
engage  in  public  prayers,  and  his  testimony  was  not 
admitted  in  courts  of  justice. 

Now,  the  man  mentioned  in  the  text,  as  we  learn 
from  the  feelings  of  the  people  when  they  saw  Christ 
enter  his  house,  was  one  of  these  publicans,  the  prin- 
cipal of  the  extortioners ;  men  knew  him,  perhaps,  as 
the  Shylock  of  Jericho  ;  "  and  he  was  rich."  In  his 
personal  appearance,  it  seems,  he  was  below  the  com- 
mon stature.  Great  talents  at  financiering  have  not 
unfrequently  been  associated  with  smallness  of  size,  so 
that  painters  and  poets  have  connected  the  two  things 
together.  If  he  were  mean  and  wicked,  his  inferior 
personal  appearance  must  have  made  him  an  object 
of  contempt.  But  besides  this,  he  was  a  Jew ;  not  a 
foreigner  plundering  strangers,  but  one  of  their  own 
countrymen  hiring  himself  to  their  Roman  masters, 
and  making  use  of  his  office  to  oppress  the  Jews,  his 
countrymen,  and  enrich  himself.  So  that,  all  things 
considered,  we  shall  not  err  if  we  suppose  him  to  have 
been  an  odious  character ;  a  little,  brisk,  shrewd,  cruel 
Jew,  rich  in  ill-gotten  treasures,  and  small  as  he  was. 


76  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

bearing  sway  among  the  herd  of  pubHcans  through 
his  intriguing  manners,  or  the  influence  of  his  su- 
perior wealth. 

This  man  had  a  desire  to  see  Christ.  "  He  sought 
to  see  Jesus,  who  he  was."  As  Christ  entered  and 
passed  through  Jericho  with  a  crowd  of  people  around 
him,  the  excitement  in  the  street  caught  the  attention 
of  this  publican ;  but  not  being  able  "  for  the  press," 
"  because  he  was  little  of  stature,"  to  obtain  a  sight  of 
Christ,  he  ran  before  the  crowd,  and  climbed  into  a 
sycamore  tree,  and  waited  for  his  coming.  He  does 
not  seem  to  have  had  any  religious  impressions,  or 
any  thing  but  a  desire  to  see  a  celebrated  stranger. 
The  crowd  soon  came  by  the  tree,  and  Jesus  looked 
up,  and  saw  him,  and  said  unto  him,  "  Zaccheus, 
make  haste  and  come  down  ;  for  to-day  I  must  abide 
at  thy  house." 

This  is  not  the  only  instance  in  which  Christ 
showed  his  knowledge  of  one  who  supposed  himself 
to  be  a  stranger  to  him.  "  Nathanael  said  unto  him, 
Whence  knowest  thou  me '? "  There  can  be  no  rea- 
son to  doubt  that  Christ  knew  who  Zaccheus  was 
without  being  informed,  and  the  sequel  of  the  story 
leads  us  to  believe  that  the  whole  transaction  was  ar- 
ranged by  the  omniscient  Saviour  for  the  purposes 
which  will  presently  appear. 

As  Christ  came  to  the  tree,  and  looked  up,  and  said, 
"  Zaccheus  ! "  we  may  easily  conceive  the  surprise  of 


CONVERSION  OF  ZACCHEUS.  77 

the  man  at  the  salutation.  He  little  dreamed  of  being 
noticed,  especially  of  being  addressed  by  name,  on  the 
part  of  him  whom  all  Jericho  followed.  As  the  Sa- 
viour paused  and  the  crowd  halted,  there  was  one 
moment  for  the  arch  publican  to  think  of  his  situa- 
tion. It  is  not  impossible  that,  with  the  inconceivable 
rapidity  with  which  thoughts  pass  through  the  mind 
under  sudden  excitement,  some  disagreeable  appre- 
hensions seized  him;  and  it  may  be  his  conscience 
awoke.  Perhaps  he  thought  that  Christ  had  come 
to  arraign  him,  and  expose  him  to  the  populace.  He 
was  like  one  caught  and  bound  fast ;  the  tree  was  a 
pillory  if  Christ  saw  fit  to  use  it  for  that  purpose,  and 
turn  the  indignation  of  the  people  against  "the  sinner. 
At  the  moment  when  the  eye  of  Christ  was  directed 
towards  him  in  the  tree,  it  were  not  surprising  if  his 
past  life  and  forebodings  of  shame  filled  the  mind  of 
this  transgressor. 

The  call  of  Christ  was  more  surprising  to  Zaccheus 
than  his  discovery  of  him.  We  can  hardly  imagine 
the  effect  which  the  Saviour's  words  must  have  had 
upon  him  after  his  first  painful  alarm :  "  Zaccheus, 
make  haste  and  come  down ;  for  to-day  I  must  abide 
at  thy  house."  Never  could  there  be  a  more  sudden 
and  affecting  change  in  the  feelings  of  a  man.  A 
moment  before  he  was  like  an  arrested  culprit,  liable, 
at  a  word  from  Christ,  to  meet  the  scorn  and  indigna- 
tion of  the  populace ;    now  the  Saviour's  words  of 


78  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

kindness  and  confidence  in  him  melted  his  heart. 
"Zaccheus,  make  haste  and  come  down."  But  for 
what  purpose  1  To  meet  the  insults  or  reproaches  of 
the  people ?  "I  must  abide  at  thy  house."  '  With 
me ! '  he  might  have  said ;  '  thou  with  me ! '  With 
what  emotions  must  he  have  descended.  "  He  made 
haste,  and  came  down,  and  received  him  joyfully." 

Then,  indeed,  a  strange  sight  appeared.  There 
walked  together  the  Son  of  God  and  the  chief  of  the 
publicans ;  he  "  who  did  no  sin,  neither  was  guile 
found  in  his  mouth,"  and  the  wicked  Zaccheus,  side 
by  side.  In  silent  doubt  for  a  season,  it  would  seem, 
this  new  object  of  the  Saviour's  mercy  must  have 
passed  along,  wondering  whether  it  were  a  dream,  and 
experiencing  a  conflict  of  feelings  as  he  met  the  eyes 
of  the  people  in  his  new  and  strange  position.  What 
joy  there  must  have  been  in  the  presence  of  the  angels 
of  God  at  such  a  sight !  What  bitter  feelings  in  the 
great  enemy  of  Christ  and  man  at  the  loss  of  such 
prey! 

Christ  went  into  the  house  of  this  sinner,  and,  with 
his  disciples,  became  his  guest.  The  crowd,  as  we 
infer  from  the  narrative,  followed  him  to  the  door ; 
and  we  are  prepared  to  feel  the  truth  and  force  of  the 
remark  made  by  the  evangelist  with  regard  to  them : 
"And  when  they  saw  it,  they  all  murmured,  saying, 
That  he  was  gone  to  be  guest  with  a  man  that  is  a 
sinner."     Was   there   no  virtuous,  upright   man   in 


CONVERSION   OF  ZACCHEUS.  79 

Jericho,  that  Christ  should  have  chosen  such  a  sinner 
for  his  host?  Docs  he  mean  to  set  at  nought  public 
opinion  by  honoring  a  pest  of  society  with  his  pres- 
ence? Perhaps  his  friends,  some  of  them,  expressed 
their  surprise  and  fears  that  he  should  be  willing  to 
associate  with  such  a  man,  that  he  would  so  far  risk 
his  reputation  with  the  people  as  to  pay  such  needless 
attention  to  this  publican  and  sinner.  Many,  no 
doubt,  went  back,  and  walked  no  more  with  him  ;  and 
here  and  there  a  great  moralist  disdained  ever  after 
to  follow  a  man  who  would  seek  the  company  of  such 
a  character.  Zaccheus,  no  doubt,  knew  or  could  im- 
agine what  they  thought  and  said;  and,  altogether, 
his  feelings  must  have  been  a  singular  ccTmbination 
of  opposite  emotions  which  it  would  be  hard  to 
describe. 

But  it  seems  that  the  immediate  effect  upon  Zac- 
cheus of  the  Saviour's  conduct  toward  him  was,  con- 
viction of  sin,  unfeigned  repentance,  confession,  and 
restitution. 

"  And  Zaccheus  stood  and  said,  Behold,  Lord,  the 
half  of  my  goods  I  give  to  the  poor ;  and  if  I  have 
taken  any  thing  from  any  man  by  false  accusation,  I 
restore  him  fourfold." 

It  was  as  though  he  said,  '  Thy  kindness  to  me,  a 
sinner,  has  broken  and  subdued  my  heart.  I  adore 
and  love  that  goodness  which  treated  me  so  infinitely 
above  my  deserts.     I  expected,  for  a  moment  in  the 


80 


CHRIST  A  FRIEND, 


tree,  to  be  exposed  before  the  people,  to  have  my  sins 
set  in  order  before  my  eyes.  It  would  have  been  just 
and  right.  But,  instead  of  this,  I  am  selected  from 
all  the  people  in  Jericho,  and  thou  hast  come  into  my 
house  to  be  my  guest.  I  can  not  withstand  thy  won- 
drous mercy.  Truly  thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of 
the  living  God.  Is  this  the  manner  of  man,  O  Lord? 
Thy  mercy  is  above  the  heavens,  and  behold,  I  am 
vile!  Here  I  repent  of  my  past  wickedness,  and 
shall  make  restitution.  One  half  of  all  my  property 
I  now  divide  among  the  poor.  I  shall  make  it  known 
that  to  every  one  whose  property  I  have  rated  un- 
justly, and  so  have  extorted  money  from  him  by  wrong- 
ful assessment,  I  will  pay  back  not  only  his  proper 
demand,  but  fourfold.' 

"  And  Jesus  said  unto  him.  This  day  is  salvation 
come  to  this  house,  for  that  he  also  is  a  son  of  Abra- 
ham. For  the  Son  of  man  is  come  to  seek  and  save 
that  which  is  lost." 

These  words,  no  doubt,  were  intended  to  comfort 
Zaccheus,  and  assure  him  of  pardon  and  restoration 
to  the  favor  of  God  and  to  the  confidence  of  the  good. 
Though  Zaccheus  was  a  lineal  descendant  of  Abra- 
ham,  yet  he  was  not,  in  the  popular  acceptation  of  the 
term,  a  son  of  Abraham,  by  reason  of  his  former  life 
and  conduct,  but,  on  the  contrary,  "  a  heathen  man 
and  a  publican."  But  by  his  repentance,  through  the 
mercy  of  Christ,  he  was  restored  to  the  condition  and 


CONVERSION  OF  ZACCHEUS.  81 

privileges  of  those  who  were  called  after  the  father 
of  the  faithful.  Christ  then  added  the  explanation 
of  his  conduct  in  his  treatment  of  Zaccheus,  as  though 
he  said,  The  multitude  wonder  at  me  for  my  treatment 
of  this  sinner ;  they  little  understand  the  purpose  for 
which  I  came  on  earth.  "  For  the  Son  of  man  is 
come  to  seek  and  save  that  which  is  lost." 

There  is  great  instruction  to  be  derived  from  this 
narrative. 

I.  Divine  wisdom  ivas  displayed  in  the  conversion 
of  Zaccheus. 

"  He  that  winneth  souls  is  wise."  When  Jesus  en- 
tered and  passed  through  Jericho,  on  purpose,  as  there 
is  reason  to  believe,  to  convert  this  sinner,  there  were 
many  ways  in  which  he  could  have  done  it ;  but  the 
way  which  he  took  to  accomplish  his  object  was  sin- 
gularly beautiful  for  its  adaptedness  to  the  end  in 
view.  The  Spirit  of  God  moved  Zaccheus  to  ascend 
that  tree,  and  so  prepared  the  way  for  the  call  which 
was  to  be  made  to  him. 

Approaching  the  tree,  Christ  did  not  first  of  all 
turn  the  attention  of  the  people  toward  him  in  a  way 
to  cause  embarrassment ;  nor  did  he  for  one  moment 
mortify  him  ;  nor  did  he  make  the  most  distant  allu- 
sion to  his  past  life ;  and,  indeed,  it  does  not  appear 
that  in  all  his  conversation  with  him,  in  the  tree,  by 
the  way,  or  in  the  house,  he  said  one  word  to  him  in 


82  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

the  form  of  reproach,  or  even  reproof,  but  made  his 
kindness  and  love  the  almighty  instrument  of  break- 
ing his  heart.  It  is  the  highest  wisdom  in  governing 
men  and  children,  to  make  them  govern  themselves. 
We  can  imagine  that  kind,  gracious  voice,  as  the  Sa- 
viour paused  and  looked  up  into  the  tree :  '  Come, 
Zaccheus,  I  will  go  home  with  you  as  your  guest.' 
Exquisitely  beautiful  was  this  stroke  of  divine  skill ; 
—  not  adroitness,  for  this  savors  too  much  of  human 
artifice  ;  —  not  tact,  for  this  is  too  common  and  low  a 
term  by  which  to  designate  it ;  rather  it  was  an  in- 
stance of  heavenly  wisdom  inspired  by  heavenly  love. 
It  began  by  the  gratifying  act  on  the  part  of  a  stran- 
ger of  speaking  the  name  of  one  who,  though  per- 
sonally a  stranger,  was  made  to  feel  that  he  had  some 
distinction  or  importance  which  made  his  name  fa- 
miliar, even  to  this  distinguished  visitor.  But  look 
at  some  of  the  words  in  the  call.  To  effect  the  de- 
sign it  was  necessary  that  there  should  not  be  much 
formality  in  the  invitation.  For  if  Christ  had  stood 
and  said  to  Zaccheus,  '  If  you  are  willing  to  receive 
me  as  your  guest  I  will  go  to  your  house,'  it  would 
have  embarrassed  him ;  many  difficulties  would  have 
started  in  his  mind ;  and  at  last,  like  a  reptile  or  slave, 
he  would  have  crept  down  from  the  tree.  To  save 
this  embarrassment,  and  to  put  the  man  wholly  at 
ease,  observe  that  Christ  throws  in  the  words,  malce 
haste,  as  though  it  were  already  a  settled  thing  that 


CONVERSION  OF  ZACCIIEUS.  83 

he  would  go  with  him,  and  he  need  not  embarrass 
himself  even  by  accepting  the  proposal.  The  wise 
and  gracious  art  had  its  effect  upon  the  sinner :  "  He 
made  haste,  and  came  down,  and  received  him  joy- 
fully." 

Christ  could  have  rebuked  Zaccheus,  and  so  have 
brought  him  to  repentance,  as  Peter  properly  rebuked 
Simon  Magus:  "O,  full  of  all  subtlety,  thou  child  of 
the  devil,"  and  as  Christ  himself  rebuked  certain 
Pharisees  ;  but  he  spared  his  feelings,  and  took  him  to 
his  house ;  and  one  of  the  mightiest  of  the  Saviour's 
triumphs  on  earth  then  and  there  took  place  —  a  tri- 
umph over  one  who,  besides  being  a  practised  extor- 
tioner, was  one  of  those  of  whom  Christ  himself  said, 
"  How  hardly  shall "  they  "  enter  into  the  kingdom 
of  God ! "  Zaccheus  will  never,  never  forget,  that  in- 
stead of  paining  him  by  exposure,  Christ  took  him 
into  his  company,  under  his  protection,  went  into  his 
guilty  dwelling,  and  there,  rather  than  in  the  street, 
and  rather  than  by  shame,  there,  in  the  retirement  of 
his  home,  gently  turned  the  thoughts  of  the  sinner  to 
himself,  and  led  him  rather  than  drove  him  to  repent- 
ance. It  would  have  been  interesting  to  hear  him 
afterward,  as,  for  the  first  time  in  his  life,  perhaps,  he 
called  his  family,  if  he  had  one,  together  for  spiritual 
worship,  and  related  all  which  that  day  had  happened; 
how  he  went  out  in  the  morning  a  wicked  man  and  an 
enemy  to  God,  and  how,  accidentally,  he  climbed  that 


84  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

tree,  and  how  he  felt  when  Christ  paused,  and  looked 
up,  and  began  to  speak  to  him,  and  when  he  found 
himself  a  moment  after  walking  side  by  side  with  him, 
and  how  he  condescended  to  come  into  his  house  to 
save  the  chief  of  sinners,  one  to  whom  he  was  under 
no  obligation  even  by  the  slightest  courtesy  or  by 
praying  him  that  he  would  eat  with  him,  but  from 
all  the  people  of  the  place,  chose  him,  and  that  too 
when,  by  his  prominence  before  the  multitude,  there 
was  such  an  opportunity  to  treat  him  with  marked 
displeasure.  What  a  prayer  that  man  must  have 
uttered  that  night  in  the  presence  of  his  family  ! 
Ministering  angels  might  have  paused  over  that  dwell- 
ing to  say,  "  Behold,  he  prayeth  ;  "  and,  if  he  sung 
a  hymn,  to  learn  that  penitential  song  and  rehearse  it 
on  their  harps  in  heaven.  There  is  a  hymn  whose 
sentiments  and  language  would  well  have  expressed 
the  feelings  of  that  new  convert :  — 

"  Lord,  thou  hast  won  —  at  length  I  yield ; 
My  heart,  by  mighty  grace  compelled, 

Surrenders  all  to  thee  : 
Against  thy  terrors  long  I  strove : 
But  who  can  stand  against  thy  love  ? 
Love  conquers  even  me. 

"  If  thou  hadst  bid  thy  thunders  roll, 
Or  lightnings  flash  to  blast  my  soul, 

I  still  had  stubborn  been ; 
But  mercy  has  my  heart  subdued, 
A  bleeding  Saviour  I  have  viewed, 
And  now  I  hate  my  sin." 


CONVERSION   OF  ZACCIIEUS.  85 

II.  It  is  useful  to  jJi^ft  ourselves  with  any  innocent 
motive  in  the  ivay  of  Christ. 

It  is  well  to  bring  others  with  us  to  public  worship, 
and  to  the  places  where  prayer  is  wont  to  be  made, 
even  when  they  have  no  interest  in  the  subject  of  re- 
ligion ;  for  such  persons  are  sometimes  most  likely  to 
be  awakened.  If  any  have  a  desire  to  know  what 
spiritual  religion  is,  while  they  are  conscious  of  no 
special  religious  impressions  or  proper  feelings,  let 
them,  nevertheless,  be  encouraged  to  visit  the  house 
of  God  and  the  places  where  Christians  meet  to  pray. 
Zaccheus  had  no  other  feeling  in  climbing  the  tree  to 
see  Christ  than  bare  curiosity;  but  every  ordinary 
thought  or  feeling  with  regard  to  Christ  which  will 
prompt  us  to  put  ourselves  in  his  way  is  to  be  cher- 
ished, nor  must  we  suspect  or  despise  it  though  it  be 
not  all  that  it  should  be.  If  we  would  obtain  religion, 
there  are  appropriate  means  to  be  used,  as  in  every 
other  pursuit.  Riding,  or  sailing,  or  sleeping  on  the 
Sabbath,  or  strolling  with  idle  company,  has  no  ten- 
dency to  make  us  acquainted  with  Christ.  Put  your- 
self under  religious  influences,  be  in  earnest  to  gain 
heavenly  wisdom ;  wait  at  her  gates,  show  zeal  in 
seeking  Christian  knowledge,  run  before  the  multi- 
tude, climb  the  tree,  obtain  direction  in  your  doubts 
and  difficulties  ;  for  if  Zaccheus,  from  a  mere  motive 
of  curiosity  to  see  Christ,  found  eternal  life,  and  if 
men  who  had  confidence  in  him  to  venture  and  ask 


86  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

for  cures  received  forgiveness  of  sins,  let  us  be  per- 
suaded that  he  will  notice  and  cherish  every  desire, 
however  poor  and  feeble,  which  is  directed  toward 
him.  Zaccheus  could  not  even  plead  the  promise, 
"  A  bruised  reed  shall  he  not  break,  and  smoking  flax 
shall  he  not  quench."  His  heart  bore  no  sign  of  con- 
trition ;  no  spark  of  right  desire  had  fallen  into  it. 
And  yet  his  merely  placing  himself  in  the  Saviour's 
path  was  followed  by  happy  consequences  which  are 
never  to  end. 

Til.  The  case  of  Zaccheus  is  an  instance  of  sudden 
conversion. 

There  is  something  highly  encouraging  in  the  truth 
of  instantaneous  conversion.  Many  are  looking  and 
waiting  for  the  comfort  and  joy  of  an  established  hope 
in  Christ  through  some  process  of  awakening,  con- 
viction, anxiety,  and  final  discovery  of  the  way  to  be 
saved,  such  as  they  have  known  to  be  the  experience 
of  others.  But,  happily,  neither  this  nor  any  other 
process  is  the  essential  way  of  becoming  a  Christian. 
Zaccheus  went  through  no  extended  process  of  awak- 
ening and  distress,  which,  in  his  case,  would  have 
been,  as  it  usually  is,  struggles  against  convictions 
of  duty,  unwillingness  to  comply  at  once  with  the 
requirements  of  God.  He  went  home  with  Christ ; 
the  thought  of  Christ's  goodness  to  him  touched  his 
heart ;  such  great  confidence  and  love  showed  him  his 


CONVERSION   OF  ZACCHEUS.  87 

own  guilt  in  contrast,  and  inspired  him  with  hope 
that  there  was  mercy  even  for  him. 

You  will  be  permitted  to  repent  and  believe  on 
Christ  in  the  same  summary  manner,  if  you  choose. 
Nothing  but  unbelief,  unwillingness  to  make  that  full 
surrender  to  God  which  Zaccheus  made,  has  kept  you, 
or  keeps  you  this  hour,  from  an  experience  similar  to 
his.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  protracted 
anxiety  is  required  of  us,  or  that  God  needs  to  be  in- 
fluenced by  many  prayers  and  tears  to  bestow  mercy 
upon  us ;  for  he  is  waiting  to  be  gracious,  and  the 
more  promptly  and  heartily  we  yield  ourselves  to  him, 
the  more  acceptable  is  it  in  his  sight.  While  we  sup- 
pose that  we  must  prevail  on  him,  he,  by  his  Spirit,  is 
striving  to  prevail  on  us  without  delay  to  comply  with 
his  offers  and  promises.  We  say,  then,  that  the  truth 
of  instantaneous  conversion  is  highly  encouraging, 
relieving  you  from  the  necessity  of  waiting  for  a  fu- 
ture and  more  favorable  opportunity ;  because  "  the 
word  is  nigh  thee,  even  in  thy  mouth,  and  in  thy 
heart ;  that  is,  the  word  of  faith,  which  we  preach." 
Why  should  it  be  thought  a  thing  incredible  with  you 
that  God  the  Spirit  can,  at  this  hour,  apply  to  you 
the  benefits  of  that  great  sacrifice  which  God  the 
Son  has  offered  for  your  sins  1  Are  you,  alone,  be- 
yond the  reach  of  his  skill  and  power  ?  or,  must  you 
labor  with  your  wretched  heart  a  few  weeks  or  months 
longer  to  make  it  easier  for  the  almighty  Spirit  to 


88  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

change  it  1  "What  if  some  sudden  accident  or  sharp 
sickness  should  bring  you  in  a  few  hours  to  the  bor- 
der of  the  grave?  You  would  believe  in  instanta- 
neous conversion  then.  It  would  be  essential  to  your 
salvation  that  all  which  is  done  for  you  should  be 
done  quickly.  Take  courage,  then,  for  you  may  at 
this  moment  turn  to  God  ;  and,  as  you  can  not  doubt 
the  reality  of  a  sudden  and  radical  change  in  Zacche- 
us  between  the  moment  when  he  climbed  the  tree  and 
the  moment  when  he  stood  in  his  house  and  confessed 
and  repented  of  his  sins,  so  let  the  goodness  of  God 
lead  you  to  repentance  without  delay,  and  of  you  it 
shall  be  said,  "This  day  is  salvation  come  to  this 
house,"  and  you  shall  be  numbered  forthwith  among 
the  subjects  of  the  Saviour's  power  and  grace. 

But  some  say,  '  Religion  is  the  work  of  a  life ;  it 
can  not  be  acquired  in  a  moment.'  Keligion  was  the 
work  of  a  life  with  Zaccheus  after  his  heart  was 
changed ;  but  it  was  not  the  work  of  a  life  to  obtain 
that  change  of  heart.  A  single  tide  occupies  six  hours ; 
but  there  is  a  moment  when  that  tide  ceases  to  ebb, 
and  begins  to  flow.  In  all  great  experiences  and  events 
there  is  one  decisive  moment ;  in  retracing  the  steps 
over  a  very  long,  mistaken  road,  there  is  a  first  step 
backward,  the  result  of  a  conviction  and  a  resolution. 
If  instantaneous  conversion  by  the  almighty  grace  of 
the  Spirit  be  impossible,  what  melancholy  and  despair 
would  attend  our  approach  to  many  a  dying  bed! 


CONVERSION   OF  ZACCHEUS.  89 

But  now  we  can  say,  "Be  of  good  cheer ;  "  had  you 
lived  a  religious  life,  you  would  need  at  this  moment 
to  come,  as  you  must  come  now,  to  the  feet  of  sov- 
ereign mercy,  and  be  saved  without  money  and  with- 
out price.  There  is  hope ;  God  is  not  willing  that 
you  should  perish  ;  only  believe  ;  remember  the  pen- 
itent thief;  lay  hold  on  Christ ;  "  he  that  belie veth 
shall  not  come  into  condemnation,  but  is  passed  from 
death  unto  life." 

IV.  The  history  of  Zaccheus  shoivs  how  lost  reputa- 
tion,  in  certain  cases,  may  he  perfectly  retrieved. 

Leaving  out  of  view  those  cases  in  which  public 
offences  have  been  followed  by  punishment  at  the 
hands  of  the  law,  in  which  it  is  necessarily  far  more 
difficult  to  satisfy  the  community  that  repentance  and 
reformation  are  not  merely  a  natural  effect  of  the  pun- 
ishment, or  assumed  as  the  only  chance  of  removing 
outlawry,  we  will  confine  ourselves  to  cases  in  which 
men  have  fallen  from  virtue  in  some  notorious  and 
shameful  transgression,  have  been  exposed,  have  used 
falsehood  to  screen  themselves,  have  been  detected  in 
their  lies,  and  are  left  defenceless  with  a  blasted  char- 
acter, the  objects  of  mingled  scorn  and  pity.  In  such 
cases  men  are  generally  regarded  as  wholly  lost.  They 
are,  indeed,  desperate  cases ;  but  must  these  men 
despair  1 

If  they  seek  to  associate  with  respectable  men,  they 


90  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

are  shunned  ;  if  they  crave  employment,  they  are  de- 
nied ;  if  they  purpose  to  outHve  their  shame,  and 
struggle  out  of  their  degradation,  the  laws  of  human 
society  and  the  laws  of  their  own  nature  baffle  them ; 
the  conviction  is  forced  upon  them  that  for  this  world 
they  are  ruined.  The  philanthropist,  the  moralist, 
the  man  of  wealth  and  commanding  influence,  should 
they  try  their  skill  to  raise  and  restore  such  men, 
would  be  compelled  to  despair. 

There  is  a  door  of  hope  even  for  these  men,  ruined, 
cast  out,  and  trodden  under  foot  of  men.  One  Friend 
remains  to  them ;  they  have  a  Friend,  and  he  is  the 
best  of  friends  ;  a  Friend  who  not  only  can  give  them 
right  feelings,  but  can  turn  the  hearts  of  all  men  to- 
ward them,  not  merely  with  relenting,  but  even  with 
confidence  and  love. 

The  method  by  which  this  Friend  will  restore  and 
save  them,  if  he  undertakes  to  do  it,  will  be  by  lead- 
ing them  to  feel  in  such  a  manner  toward  him  as  their 
God  and  Friend  as  will  make  them  happy  to  confess 
in  the  fullest  manner ;  to  humble  themselves  before 
every  foe,  to  make  restitution  and  reparation  at  any 
cost,  and  to  feel  that  the  world  knows  all  of  which 
they  have  ever  been  accused  or  suspected.  Their 
sense  of  acceptance  and  peace  with  God  will  make 
every  thing  easy,  and  even  pleasant,  which  before 
would  have  been  beyond  endurance,  or  impossible. 

In   this  manner,  the   kind   and   merciful  Saviour 


CONVERSION  OF  ZACCHEUS.  91 

dealt  with  Zaccheus.  He  first  gained  his  confidence 
by  publicly  owning  him  as  a  companion  ;  nay,  as  a 
host,  receiving  kindness  from  him.  Let  any  man,  in 
his  own  apprehension  and  that  of  others,  ruined  and 
friendless,  be  assured  of  this,  that  his  sins,  his  mean- 
ness, his  lying,  his  fraud,  have  not  alienated  from  him 
that  one  Friend,  who,  '  when  we  were  yet  without 
strength,  died  for  the  ungodly,'  who  penetrates  the 
deepest  and  darkest  wilderness  into  which  remorse 
may  have  driven  a  guilty  man,  and  rejoices  more  to 
save  him  than  over  the  whole  company  of  the  right- 
eous. Let  him  read  in  the  New  Testament  how  this 
Friend  selected  extreme  cases  of  guilt  and  shame,  to 
illustrate  the  depth  of  his  compassion.  "  This  is  a 
faithful  saying,  and  worthy  of  all  acceptation,  that 
Christ  Jesus  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners ;  of 
whom  I  am  chief"  If  God  the  Saviour  does  not  cast 
him  off,  why  should  he  fear  ?  "  Him  that  cometh 
unto  me  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out."  "  Wherefore  he 
is  able  to  save  them  to  the  uttermost  that  come  unto 
God  by  him,  seeing  that  he  ever  liveth  to  make  inter- 
cession for  them." 

Probably  there  was  not  a  happier  man  in  Jericho, 
or  Judea,  than  Zaccheus  at  the  moment  when  he  stood 
before  Christ  and  made  confession.  Doubtless  he  said 
within  himself,  '  Men  have  known  me  as  avaricious  and 
an  extortioner.  They  shall  know  me  henceforth  in  a 
different  character.     I  crucify  my  avarice,  and  share 


92  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

my  all  Avitli  the  poor.  When  men  hear  that  Christ 
has  been  in  my  house  and  I  have  become  his  disciple, 
a  thousand  taunts  and  insults  will  descend  upon  me. 
I  will  meet  those  whom  I  have  injured,  and  those  who 
may  have  hated  and  abused  me.  I  shall  demand  the 
privilege  of  making  confession  and  restitution  and  of 
humbling  myself  before  those  who  have  justly  charged 
me  with  crime,  even  though  they  have  unnecessarily 
or  wantonly  abused  me.  I  will  acknowledge  all,  for- 
give, and  seek  forgiveness.' 

He  parted  at  once  with  half  of  all  that  he  had,  to 
"give  to  the  poor."  Out  of  the  other  half  he  prom- 
ised to  pay  each  one  whom  he  had  injured,  fourfold. 
We  see  him  passing  along  the  street.  What  confi- 
dence, what  love,  what  kindness  mark  the  varying 
expression  of  his  face.  He  has  a  diiferent  air  and 
manner ;  it  almost  seems  that  he  has  added  to  his 
stature  since  yesterday.  Instead  of  skulking  about, 
afraid  or  ashamed  to  meet  men,  he  goes  to  some  who 
he  knows  fear  or  hate  him,  and  bids  them  behold  in 
him  a  new  man.  What  scenes  of  confession  on  his 
part,  of  weeping  on  the  part  of  those  whom  he  grasps 
by  the  hand.  The  joy  of  heaven  over  him  is  not  so 
rich  as  his.  Not  waiting  to  be  called  upon,  he  goes 
to  one  and  another,  —  the  widow,  the  orphan,  to  all 
whom  he  has  wronged,  —  receives  forgiveness,  has 
peace  with  his  own  conscience  and  with  God. 

Let  some  one  who  has  fallen  into  the  deepest  disgrace 


CONVERSION  OF  ZACCHEUS.  93 

with  his  fellow-men  simply  accept  Jesus  the  Saviour 
as  his  Friend,  and  he  can  not  refrain  from  repent- 
ance and  confession.  Instead  of  its  seeming  to  him 
like  a  scaffold,  it  will  excite  the  deepest  and  richest 
emotions  to  confess  and  make  reparation.  He  will 
have  a  proper  conscious  superiority  to  those  who  have 
accused,  or  convicted,  or  abused  him  ;  being  able  then 
to  meet  them  with  a  spirit  which  will  not  only  satisfy 
them,  but  will  disarm  and  subdue  every  feeling  of 
hostility.  "  When  a  man's  ways  please  the  Lord,  he 
maketh  even  his  enemies  to  be  at  peace  with  him." 

There  are  cases  in  which  it  would  not  only  be  need- 
less, it  would  be  wrong,  for  a  man  to  disclose  his  sins. 
Let  him  make  all  possible  reparation  as  privately  as 
the  nature  of  the  case  will  admit ;  but  if  he  is  not 
known  to  others  as  having  injured  them,  he  might 
injuriously  throw  away  the  reputation  which  God  has 
kindly  preserved  for  him.  Justice  may  not  require 
that  he  should  make  confession  to  a  fellow-man,  un- 
less an  innocent  person  should  be  suffering  punish- 
ment, or  be  under  unjust  suspicion  on  his  account. 
Even  here,  it  may  be,  the  innocent  may  be  delivered, 
and  the  penitent  transgressor  retain  his  reputation 
with  men ;  at  least,  let  him  by  no  means  needlessly 
expose  his  sin,  if  he  can  satisfy  all  the  demands  of 
justice.  Yet  if  the  burden  be  too  great  to  bear  alone, 
if  it  would  be  a  relief  to  make  the  disclosure,  if  a 
family  and  friends  would  not  have  pain  and  shame 


94  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

inflicted  on  them,  some  -way  will  offer  itself  in  which 
all  the  demands  of  conscience,  as  well  as  justice,  may 
be  answered  without  further  injury  to  the  trans- 
gressor. 

Finally.  There  was  one  moment  in  the  life  of  Zac- 
cheus  when  his  history  for  eternity  was  decided. 

The  day  when  he  met  Christ  was  an  accepted  time, 
a  day  of  salvation.  He  might  have  hardened  his  heart 
against  Christ,  as  the  Pharisee  did  when  Jesus  ate  with 
him,  and  that  Pharisee  spoke  harshly  of  Christ  and 
of  the  penitent  woman  who  brought  her  box  of  oint- 
ment to  anoint  him.  Zaccheus  might  have  said,  '  How 
much  I  must  confess,  how  much  I  must  expose  myself, 
how  much  I  must  lose,  if  I  become  a  Christian  ! '  It 
was  a  solemn  and  important  moment ;  Christ  would 
probably  never  come  so   near   to  him   again,  never 

asrain  tell  him  that  he  must  abide  at  his  house.     The 

o 

balances  for  eternity  were  hung  up,  and  the  sinner,  by 
the  grace  of  God,  weighed  his  eternal  salvation  against 
his  shame  and  his  gold.  Happy  decision !  This  day, 
among  the  blissful  scenes  of  heaven,  he  feels  the  con- 
sequences of  that  choice. 

If  you  are  at  this  moment  interested  in  the  subject 
of  religion,  it  may  be  as  important  to  you  as  eternity 
can  make  it,  that  you  come  speedily  to  a  right  conclu- 
sion. Suppose  that  Christ  should  suddenly  appear  in 
this  house,  and  passing  near  the  place  where  you  sit, 


CONVERSION   OF  ZACCHEUS.  95 

should  cast  his  eye  upon  you,  saying,  "  To-day  I  must 
abide  at  thy  house."  Are  you  willing  to  have  Christ 
come  into  your  house  '?  You  know  what  it  cost  Zac- 
cheus.  When  Christ  comes  into  a  man's  house  by 
his  love,  the  barred  and  bolted  heart  opens  its  doprs, 
the  treasures  fly  abroad,  the  secret  sin,  the  long-stand- 
ing quarrel,  the  iniquity  of  the  man's  calling  are  con- 
fessed and  forsaken.  All  this  is  done  under  the  in- 
fluence of  feelings  which  make  the  man  supremely 
happy.  Are  you  willing  that  Christ  should  come  into 
your  house  ?  When  you  open  your  door  on  your  re- 
turn home,  think,  '  The  Saviour  has  come  here  before 
me,  and  is  waiting  for  me  to  welcome  him.'  When 
you  shut  your  door  to-night,  and  think,  as  you  do  it, 
whether  all  the  family  are  within,  ask  yourself,  '  Is  the 
Saviour  within "?  Or  am  I  shutting  the  door  upon  him, 
and  locking  it  against  him,  as  I  have  done  every  night 
before  1 '  There  he  stands,  there  he  has  stood,  till 
"  his  head  is  filled  with  dew,  and  his  locks  with  the 
drops  of  the  night."  While  you  sleep,  he  will  not 
depart.  He  longs  to  abide  with  you  and  bless  you ; 
and  while  dwelling  with  you  he  will  be  preparing  a 
mansion  for  you  in  heaven,  where  he  will  dwell  with 
you  forever.  Make  haste,  then,  and  receive  him  joy- 
fully. 


SERMON  V. 


WHO  TOUCHED  ME? 


LUKE  VIII.  45,  46. 

AND  JESUS  SAID,  ■WHO  TOUCHED  ME  ?  ■WHEN  ALL  DENIED,  PETER,  AND  THEY 
THAT  WEEE  "WITH  HIM,  SAID,  MA8TEK,  THE  MULTITUDE  THRONG  THEE 
AND   PRESS   THEE,    AND   8AYEST   THOU,    'WHO   TOUCHED  ME  ? 

AND  JESUS  SAID,  SOMEBODY  HATH  TOUCHED  ME;  FOR  1  PERCEIVE  THAT  VIR- 
TUE  IS    GONE   OUT   OP   ME. 

As  Christ  was  on  his  way  to  the  house  of  Jairus, 
whose  "  one  only  daughter  lay  a  dying,"  the  people, 
knowing  what  his  object  was,  and  curious  to  see  the 
miracle,  thronged  him.  Among  them  was  one  who 
had  been  sick  twelve  years.  Medical  skill  was  baffled 
with  regard  to  her.  All  her  property  had  been  spent 
in  paying  for  fruitless  aid.  Unseen,  disclosing  her  in- 
tention to  no  one,  she  came  behind  Christ,  and  touched 
the  border  of  his  garment,  for  she  said,  "  If  I  may 
but  touch  his  garment,  I  shall  be  whole."  Quick  as 
thought,  her  sickness  fled.  No  medical  opinion  was 
necessary  to  assure  her  that  she  was  well.  She  felt 
that  she  was  healed  of  her  plague. 

"And  Jesus  said.  Who  touched  me?"     With  an 

(96) 


WHO  TOUCPIED  ME?  97 

inquiring  look  he  seems  to  have  put  the  question  to 
all  who  were  nearest  to  him,  and  to  have  received  a 
denial  from  one  and  another.  "When  all  denied," 
he  appeared  still  unsatisfied ;  so  that  Peter,  always 
ready  to  speak,  gently  remonstrated  at  his  asking  such 
a  question  in  a  crowd ;  "  Master,  the  multitude  throng 
thee  and  press  thee,  and  sayest  thou,  Who  touched 
me V  'It  would  rather  be  strange  that  some  should 
not  touch  thee ;  and  what  importance  can  there  be  in 
the  circumstance  that  some  one  of  us  has  accidentally 
and  unavoidably  touched  thee  1 ' 

With  a  tone  of  determinateness,  and  as  though 
there  were  some  great  importance  in  the  thing,  the 
Saviour  replied,  "  Somebody  hath  touched  me ;  for  I 
perceive  that  virtue  is  gone  out  of  me." 

Of  course,  the  Saviour  knew  all  that  had  happened, 
not  from  any  force  in  the  touch,  for  it  was  only  the  bor- 
der of  the  garment  which  had  felt  that  pressure.  He 
knew  the  secret  thoughts,  the  faith,  the  cure  of  the 
woman,  and  raised  the  question,  "  Who  touched  meT' 
and  pursued  the  inquiry  for  the  purpose  of  drawing 
attention  to  the  act  of  faith  in  that  humble  person. 
Matthew  says,  "  And  he  looked  round  about  to  see 
her  that  had  done  this  thing."  All  this  was  one  of 
those  innocent  stratagems  which  we  all  use  at  times 
to  arrest  attention  and  heighten  the  effect  of  a  dis- 
closure. "He  saith  unto  Philip,  Whence  shall  we 
buy  bread  that  these  may  eat  ?     And  this  he  said  to 


98  CHRIST  A  FKIEND. 

prove  him,  for  he  knew  in  himself  what  he  would 
do."  In  each  case,  this  had  the  desired  effect.  But 
the  woman,  fearing  and  trembling,  and  knowing  what 
was  done  in  her,  came  and  fell  down  before  him,  and 
told  him  all  the  truth.  And  he  said  unto  her, 
"  Daughter,  be  of  good  comfort ;  thy  faith  hath  made 
thee  whole :  go  in  peace." 

The  instruction  which  we  may  draw  from  this  is,  — 

I.  There  is  great  difference  between  thronging  and 
pressing  Christ,  and  touching  him,  with  faith. 

There  were,  perhaps,  fifty  or  a  hundred  who,  in  the 
press  that  day,  were  in  close  contact  with  Christ,  and 
it  may  be  hundreds  more  thronged  him  and  would 
come  near  to  him  to  gratify  curiosity  ;  and  there  were 
many  times  when  eager  hands  were  stretched  forth  or 
lifted  up  toward  Jesus ;  and  yet  there  was  among  them 
all  but  one  touch,  and  that  the  most  gentle  and  of 
imperceptible  force,  which  drew  the  attention  of 
Christ,  or  obtained  any  thing  from  him.  There  were 
loud,  open  professions  of  respect,  protestations  of  con- 
fidence, earnest  desires  that  he  should  do  some  great 
work,  that  the  people  might  see  and  marvel ;  from  the 
eagerness  of  many,  one  would  have  thought  that  Christ 
was  their  best,  their  only  Friend,  that  they  were  ready 
to  be  his  disciples  and  follow  him ;  and  there  were, 
perhaps,  some  of  great  note,  for  whom  the  crowd 
opened  and  let  them  pass  in,  and  who  saluted  Christ 


WHO  TOUCHED  ME?  99 

with  respect,  and  ostentatiously  showed  their  patron- 
izing disposition  toward  him,  and  exhorted  others  to 
approach  him  to  be  healed ;  and  some  there  w^ere,  per- 
haps, who  publicly  defended  him,  and  resented  the 
calumnies  which  were  heaped  upon  him ;  and  no  doubt 
many  cried  after  him  to  come  and  heal  them.  While 
all  these  things  were  passing  on,  one  obscure  woman 
comes  near,  and  merely  lays  her  finger  on  one  of  the 
four  fringes  which,  as  you  will  see  in  the  fifteenth  of 
Numbers,  the  Jews  were  required  to  wear  on  the  four 
corners  of  the  outside  garment,  which  was  one  whole 
piece  of  cloth.  No  breath  of  the  wind,  no  insect 
lighting  on  it,  could  have  given  a  more  imperceptible 
touch  to  that  garment ;  but  that  touch  was  more  than 
all  the  noise  and  shouts,  the  outward  respect  and  wor- 
ship, of  the  crowd.  Christ  did  not  say,  '  Who  is  he 
so  eager  to  obtain  a  sight  of  me ;  who  is  that  distin- 
guished personage,  who  that  devotee,  so  demonstrative 
in  his  prayers  ; '  no,  —  but,  "  Who  touched  me  ?  " 
"  Somebody  touched  me ;  for  I  perceive  that  virtue  is 
gone  out  of  me." 

Many,  very  many,  are  ready  to  throng  and  press 
Christ,  who  never  have  rightly  touched  him.  All  our 
respect  for  his  name,  our  belief  in  his  Godhead  and 
atonement,  our  love  for  public  worship,  our  interest 
in  the  music  of  the  sanctuary,  or  in  building  the 
sanctuary  itself,  our  enjoyment  of  social  meetings,  our 
outward  attachment  to  the  cause  of  Christ  and  to  his 


100  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

friends,  our  eulogies  of  the  Christian  religion  and  its 
institutions,  —  all  this  is  well ;  but  all  this  may  be, 
and  yet  we  may  never  have  touched  Christ  with  so 
much  as  the  finger  of  our  faith. 

Many  will  say  unto  him,  "Lord,  Lord,  have  we  not 
prophesied  in  thy  name,  and  in  thy  name  cast  out 
devils,  and  done  many  wonderful  works  1 "  and  others, 
"  We  have  eaten  and  drunk  in  thy  presence,  and  thou 
hast  taught  in  our  streets."  And  Christ  will  say  to 
them,  "  I  never  knew  you."  But  a  poor,  humble 
sufferer,  unknown  in  the  crowd,  not  even  informing 
Christ  what  she  was  doing,  approaching  from  behind, 
and  not  from  before,  may,  with  her  finger,  touch  the 
border  of  his  garment ;  and  wherever  the  gospel  is 
preached  throughout  the  whole  world,  that  which  this 
woman  hath  done  shall  be  told  for  a  memorial  of  her. 
What  does  this  mean  1  We  hear  some  say,  '  I  have 
been  suing  at  the  mercy  seat  for  months  or  years, 
waiting  and  hoping  to  be  heard,  employing  all  my 
means  of  obtaining  salvation,  and  am  never  the  bet- 
ter, but  rather  grow  worse  ;  and  yet  here  is  one,  who, 
in  the  most  gentle,  simple  manner,  obtains  Christ's 
love  in  a  moment ;  and  not  only  so,  but  straightway 
takes  her  place  in  the  Holy  Bible  as  an  example  to 
the  whole  world  how  to  believe.  Lord,  help  me  to 
believe  !  Lord,  increase  my  faith  as  one  grain  of 
mustard  seed ;  for  surely  it  removes  mountains  ;  it 
brings  the  soul  to  Christ ;  it  brings  Christ  and  heaven 


WHO  TOUCHED  ME?  101 

into  the  soul.'  —  We  may  derive  further  instruction 
from  this  passage. 

II.  Simple  faith  in  Christ  is  all  which  is  necessary 
to  salvation. 

There  is  nothing  more  remarkable,  and,  to  human 
reason,  more  incredible,  in  this  woman's  cure  by  touch- 
ing the  hem  of  a  garment,  than  there  is  in  the  true 
and  only  way  to  be  saved,  and  in  the  eternal  conse- 
quences to  every  soul  of  simply  believing  in  Christ  as 
she  did. 

Had  one  asked  the  whole  council  of  doctors  who 
had  prescribed  for  the  woman,  and  to  whom  she  had 
paid  all  her  property,  whether  touching  the  border  of 
a  garment  would  cure  her,  they  would  have  thought 
that  insanity  or  idiocy  had  come  upon  her.  What 
connection  is  there  between  being  healed  of  a  malady 
which  the  medical  skill  of  Jerusalem  can  not  remove, 
and  touching  the  threads  of  a  fringe  \ 

Now,  the  act  of  faith  which  saves  the  soul  is  no  less 
wonderful,  and  to  the  eye  of  reason  no  less  incredible. 
We  are  told  that  one  simple,  heartfelt  feeling  of  trust 
and  confidence  in  Jesus  Christ  as  an  atoning  Saviour, 
delivers  the  soul  from  all  spiritual  ignorance,  makes 
one  know  more  of  God  and  spiritual  things  in  one 
day  than  the  study  of  a  lifetime  without  it  could  ac- 
quire. And  that  is  the  least  of  its  effects.  That  one 
act  of  believing  is  in  the  stead  of  angelic,  spotless 

9* 


102  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

righteousness,  which  the  law  of  God  requires  of  every 
subject  of  God's  government,  or  denounces  endless 
ruin  in  case  of  failure.  Yes,  the  law  of  God  demands 
perfection,  —  never  to  have  failed  in  one  point,  —  an- 
gelic purity,  angelic  obedience,  angelic  love,  in  short 
angelic  holiness,  —  and  the  law  has  no  provision  in 
case  of  failure,  but  the  soul  that  sinneth  it  shall  die. 
Just  as  our  law.  He  that  commits  murder  shall  die, 
has  no  remedy  for  the  murderer,  so  the  law  of  God 
has  no  remedy  for  one  who  is  not  as  perfect  as  an 
angel.  Now,  instead  of  a  life  without  sin,  instead  of 
angelic  perfection,  there  is  a  justification  provided :  and 
what  is  it '?  Simply  this  ;  If  a  sinner  will  feel  toward 
Christ,  with  regard  to  his  soul,  as  that  sick  woman 
felt  toward  him  with  regard  to  her  sickness,  he  shall 
be  saved.  This  is  the  gospel,  and  the  whole  of  the 
gospel,  "  Believe  and  thou  shalt  be  saved ; "  "  He  that 
believeth  is  not  condemned ; "  "  Being  justified  by 
faith  we  have  peace  with  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ."  Nor  is  that  faith,  to  human  apprehension, 
some  great  thing ;  something  which  the  soul  itself,  or 
any  spectator,  would  regard  as  at  all  adequate  to  the 
object  sought.  With  a  proper  sense  of  our  helpless 
need,  it  is  all  contained,  or  may  be  all  contained,  in 
one  exclamation,  "  God  be  merciful  to  me,  a  sinner," 
or  in  a  single  sigh,  "  Lord,  save  me,"  or  a  simple  act 
of  love  and  trust,  such  as  this  woman  performed. 
This  can  save  the  soul. 


WHO  TOUCHED  ME?  103 

We  often  hear  the  question  asked  by  intelligent, 
thoughtful  persons,  people  well  educated,  accustomed 
to  reason,  highly  accomplished,  '  What  is  religion  ? 
How  am  I  to  know,  among  so  many  sects,  what  I 
am  to  believe'?' 

We  will  suppose  that  such  a  person  means,  by  re- 
ligion, the  Christian  religion.  And  we  will  suppose 
further,  that  he  means  the  religion  of  Protestants. 
The  religion  of  Protestants,  —  what  is  the  thing,  un- 
derneath all  their  forms  and  the  various  peculiarities 
in  which  they  differ,  in  which  they  all  agree  1  There 
is  one  thing ;  and  having  found  this,  a  man  may  suit 
his  taste  and  belong  to  any  communion,  and  if  he  but 
have  this  one  thing,  he  will  be  saved ;  this  one  thing 
is  religion  ;  without  it,  nothing  else  is  religion  ;  every 
thing  else  is  the  covers  of  a  book,  and  this  is  the  read- 
ing ;  the  shell,  and  this  is  the  kernel ;  the  lamp,  and  this 
is  the  flame.  And  what  is  it  1  Simply  this ;  A  guilty, 
perishing  soul  committing  itself  to  Christ  as  an 
atoning  Saviour.  That  is  religion,  the  religion  of  the 
whole  Protestant  world  who  accept  Christ  as  a  divine 
Redeemer,  It  is  a  great  mistake  that  there  are  essen- 
tial differences  among  Christians  who  receive  the 
Bible  as  wholly  inspired.  They  all  differ  in  things 
which  do  not  affect  the  question  of  salvation  ;  and 
they  all  agree  in  this,  that  the  essence  of  religion  is  to 
accept  Christ  with  a  sense  of  our  need,  as  sinners.  A 
man  may  study  and  labor  to  make  something  more  of 


104  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

religion  in  its  commencement  than  this,  but  if  he  does 
he  will  not  succeed.  A  miner  does  not  care  for  the 
quartz  stone  which  holds  the  little  piece  of  gold ;  that 
small,  yellow  particle  in  the  stone  is  the  object  of  his 
search.  And  so  it  is  with  the  pearl  of  great  price ;  it 
is  independent  of  all  human  additions  and  notions  in 
which  time  has  embedded  it ;  and  religion  is  simply 
this,  for  a  sinner  to  commit  his  soul  to  Christ,  as  this 
woman  committed  her  cure  to  him  in  her  simple  act 
of  touching  him ;  "  for  she  said.  If  I  may  touch  but 
his  clothes  I  shall  be  whole." 

But  we  are  taught  further  by  this  narrative,  — 

III.   There  are  preparatives  for  faith. 

It  may  be  said,  '  If  believing  in  Christ  be  such  a 
simple  and  easy  thing,  why  can  I  not  believe  at  once, 
and  be  saved '?  I  have  tried  to  believe  in  Christ,  but 
hitherto  without  success.' 

There  are  preparatives  for  faith.  Yes,  as  there  are 
preparatives  for  cure,  and  healing,  and  rescue,  so  there 
are  preparatives  for  faith.  Preparatives  for  cure  and 
healing  are  being  sick,  or  wounded,  and  feeling  the 
need  of  remedies.  You  may  recommend  the  best 
medicines  in  vain  to  one  who  has  no  sickness ;  the 
physician  is  not  sent  for  till  the  patient  feels  that 
he  needs  him. 

When  the  jailer  at  Philippi  was  putting  Paul  and 
Silas  in  prison,  suppose  that  Paul  had  said  to  him. 


WHO  TOUCHED  ME?  105 

"  Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be 
saved."  This  would  have  been  wholly  without  mean- 
ing to  him;  or,  had  he  perceived  any  meaning,  he 
would  have  treated  it  with  contempt  and  rudeness. 
But  the  earthquake  shook  the  prison  house,  opened 
every  door,  loosened  every  man's  bands.  The  jailer 
awoke,  and  seeing  every  door  open,  and  the  prisoners 
at  liberty,  drew  his  sword  to  take  his  own  life,  sup- 
posing that  the  prisoners  had  effected  an  escape,  and 
knowing  that  the  prison  keeper's  life  was  required  if 
his  prisoners  fled.  It  was  not  the  earthquake  alone 
that  convinced  the  jailer  of  sin ;  this  aroused  and 
alarmed  him  ;  but  Paul's  kind  words,  "  Do  thyself  no 
harm,  for  we  are  all  here,"  were  an  equally  powerful 
means  of  grace.  '  Is  that  the  man  whose  feet  I  placed 
last  night  fast  in  the  stocks  1  Does  he  refuse  to  escape 
when  God  has  given  him  leave  ? '  As  the  innocence 
of  Jesus  was  the  means  of  converting  the  penitent 
thief,  so,  in  part,  the  honorable  conduct  and  forgiving 
spirit  of  Paul,  no  doubt,  awakened  the  jailer  to  a  sense 
of  his  guilt ;  and  now  he  is  ready  to  hear  about 
Christ.  Now  he  calls  for  a  light,  and  springs  in,  and 
comes  trembling,  and  falls  down  before  Paul  and  Silas, 
and  brings  them  out,  and  says,  "  Sirs,  what  must  I  do 
to  be  saved  1 "  He  had  had  preparatives  for  conversion ; 
and  these  were,  a  sense  of  his  lost  and  ruined  con- 
dition and  despair  of  help.  Then  he  was  prepared  to 
receive  Chris;. 


106  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

So  the  woman  in  the  text  had  preparatives  for  faith 
in  Christ  by  twelve  years'  experience  of  fruitless  help 
from  physicians.  Hope  deferred  had  made  her  heart 
sick  ;  she  saw  her  property  melt  away ;  one  new  phy- 
sician had  encouraged  her  to  expect  from  him  a  cure ; 
and  she  was  sinking  into  the  grave.  These  were  the 
preparatives  with  her  for  saving  faith.  So  that  we 
may  say,  in  general,  that  the  preparatives  for  faith 
are,  a  deep  conviction  that  Christ  alone  can  help  us, 
and  a  persuasion  that  he  must  save  us  or  we  perish. 
These  preparatives  every  sinner  has  before  he  believes. 
We  may  not  be  twelve  years  in  getting  them,  and  we 
may  be  twenty,  or  fifty.  We  all  employ  useless  means 
of  salvation,  some  for  a  longer  and  others  for  a  shorter 
time  ;  we  get  convinced  that  Christ  alone  can  help  us 
by  first  proving  the  emptiness  of  every  thing  else. 
When  the  prodigal  son  "  had  spent  all,"  he  said,  with 
penitence,  "  I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  father."  When 
the  woman  in  the  text  "  had  spent  all,"  she  arose  and 
came  to  Christ.  How  strange  this  is !  Men  never 
come  to  Christ  but  in  the  last  resort.  He  whom  they 
should  seek  first,  and  love  most,  is  always  the  last 
whom  they  think  of;  and  yet  he  is  never  offended, 
but  his  love  is  just  as  full  and  just  as  free  as  though 
he  were  our  first  choice.  The  reason  why  any  of  us 
have  never  come  to  Christ  is,  we  have  not  yet  spent 
our  all  of  self-righteousness,  and  self-sufficiency,  and 
worldly  ease,  and  our  "  Soul,  thou  hast  much  goods 


WHO  TOUCHED  ME?  107 

laid  up  for  many  years,"'  yet  sings  us  to  sleep ;  and 
we  have  not  been  near  enough  to  hell's  brink  by  some 
sickness  or  accident,  or  by  the  flash  of  light  disclosing 
it  in  the  death  of  some  impenitent  relative  or  friend, 
or  the  restless,  dissatisfied  mind  which  has  no  peace 
but  like  the  troubled  sea  casts  up  mire  and  dirt,  has 
not  yet  brought  us  to  despair  of  ever  growing  better ; 
yet  we  may  be  sure  of  this,  that  when  we  find  our- 
selves sinking  in  the  billows  of  death,  then,  if  not 
before,  then,  but  perhaps  too  late,  we  shall  see  the 
utter  inefficacy  of  every  other  help,  and  call  on 
Christ.  O  that  we  may  all  do  it  while  it  is  an  ac- 
cepted time.  So  soon  as  we  go  to  Christ,  like  this 
woman,  persuaded  that  he  alone,  by  his  righteousness 
and  strength,  can  save  such  sinners  as  we  are,  then  we 
have  the  preparatives  for  faith.  Preparatives  for  faith 
are  just  the  preparatives  for  effectual  begging  at  your 
door :  '  I  am  poor,  I  am  wretched,  I  have  been  direct- 
ed to  you ;  help  me,  or  I  shall  have  nothing  to  eat, 
and  no  place  for  my  head.'  Such  begging  never 
failed  with  you  ;  and  such  begging  by  you  at  Christ's 
door  will  never  fail. 

Here  let  us  notice  a  difficulty  and  an  objection. 
Some,  who  are  all  ready  to  come  to  Christ,  say,  '  I  have 
never  repented  of  my  sins.  The  awakenings,  convic- 
tions, and  remorse  which  others  speak  of,  I  never 
have  felt,  but  I  must  feel  them  before  I  come  to 
Christ.' 


108  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

Now,  it  is  an  interesting  truth,  that  coming  to  Christ 
in  the  way  described  implies  repentance,  conviction, 
remorse,  and  godly  sorrow.  You  may  not  know  one 
of  these  by  those  names  ;  but  when  a  poor,  despairing, 
and  loving  soul  casts  itself  on  the  Redeemer's  mercy 
and  help,  what  better  sorrow  for  sin  and  repent- 
ance can  there  be  1  This  is  the  very  best  of  convic- 
tion and  remorse,  and  we  desire  no  other  for  you. 
Only  come  to  Christ  as  a  perishing  sinner,  and  give 
your  soul  to  him,  and  that  involves  every  thing  else. 
So  that  you  need  wait  for  nothing  ere  you  come  to 
Christ.  But  your  coming  will  be  repentance  and  faith 
together ;  your  coming  will  be  conviction  of  sin  and 
godly  sorrow.  The  experience  that  has  prepared  you 
to  come  to  Christ  in  this  way  has  done  the  work  of 
conviction  and  repentance  in  bringing  you  to  him. 
Hence  Paul's  direction  to  the  awakened  jailer  was  at 
once  this :  "  Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and 
thou  slialt  be  saved." 

TV.  This  ivoman  affords  us  a  striking  illustration 
of  our  duty  to  come  to  Christ,  ivithoiit  limiting  for  him 
to  come  to  us. 

Are  there  not  some  of  my  hearers  who  have  been 
waiting  long  to  receive  grace  from  Christ,  professing 
that  they  are  ready,  and  wondering  at  his  delay  *? 
They  are  as  this  woman  would  have  been,  had  she 
said  in  her  impoverished  home  and  on  her  bed  of  Ian- 


WHO   TOUCHED   ME?  109 

guishing,  '  Christ  has  been  to  other  houses  ;  he  knows 
that  I  am  sick  ;  I  have  sent  messages  to  him,  and  told 
him  where  I  live,  and  have  asked  my  friends  to  remem- 
ber me  in  their  prayers  to  him.  I  wonder  that  he  has 
never  been  here.  I  shall  die,  if  he  does  not  come. 
Others  have  been  healed.  I  suspect  I  am  not  or- 
dained to  be  cured.  If  I  am  to  be  healed,  I  shall 
be,'  —  and  such  like  common  and  well-known  com- 
plaints. 

See  her,  on  the  contrary,  never  having  received  one 
special  word  of  encouragement  from  Christ,  so  far  as  we 
know,  but  persuaded  from  what  she  has  heard  others 
say  of  his  almighty  love  and  power,  see  her  humbly, 
and  yet  earnestly,  pressing  her  way  through  that  great 
crowd  to  get  to  Christ.  '  I  pray  you,  let  me  pass,'  she 
says  ;  and  they  wonder  at  her,  and,  perhaps,  are  rude 
to  her ;  or  one  and  another,  struck  with  her  sick  look 
and  her  eager  efforts,  make  way  to  let  her  in  ;  '  O,  if 
I  may  get  near  enough  to  reach  him,  it  is  all  I  ask ; 
I  do  not  seek  to  speak  to  him  ; '  and  so  she  stretches 
out  her  emaciated  finger,  which  for  twelve  years  had 
counted  out  gold  and  silver  to  the  physicians,  all  for 
nothing,  and  she  bends  or  reaches  forward  and  touches 
the  Saviour's  garment.  She  had  no  questionings  about 
decrees,  and  the  secret  purposes  of  Christ,  and  being 
elected  to  be  cured ;  nor  would  she  wait  for  Christ  to 
see  her  and  call  her ;  and  herein  consisted,  in  part, 
the  greatness  of  her  faith,  and  herein  she  is  unlike 


110  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

very  many  who  are  waiting  God's  time.  This  was 
coming  to  Christ ;  and  it  speaks  with  a  most  affecting 
voice  to  those  who  feel  and  even  say,  as  some  do,  '  If 
Christ  will  give  me  any  pre-assurance  that  he  will  save 
me,  I  will  come  to  him.'  This  keeps  many  from  being 
saved ;  they  insist  on  feeling  sure  that  they  are  saved 
before  they  come  to  Christ ;  they  wait  for  him  to  do 
all  the  work  before  they  move,  and  such  persons  will 
wait  in  vain.  We  are  free  agents ;  there  are  some 
things  which  God  can  not  do  for  us ;  he  can  not  be- 
lieve for  us.  Believing  does  not  consist  in  seeing  a 
thing  with  the  eyes ;  hope  that  is  seen  is  not  hope ; 
for  what  a  man  seeth  why  doth  he  yet  hope  for] 
But  believing  is  what  many  would  call  venturing,  or 
presuming,  or  taking  for  granted,  risking,  trusting, 
taking  the  first  step.  So  we  perceive  Christ's  di- 
rections are,  "Come;"  "Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that 
labor ;  "  "  All  that  the  Father  giveth  me  shall  come 
to  me." 

If  we  are  ever  to  be  saved  we  must  come  to  Christ. 
There  must  be  an  act  of  trust  and  confidence,  as  if  it 
were  self-moved ;  and  yet  there  can  be  no  question 
that  the  Spirit  of  God  drew  that  woman  to  Christ, 
and  Christ  himself  had  arranged  the  whole  plan  of 
that  mercy,  while  she  did  it,  also,  all  herself  So  we 
work  out  our  salvation,  while  it  is  God  that  worketh 
in  us. 

There  is  further  instruction  in  this  case :  — 


WHO  TOUCHED  ME?  Ill 

V.  Salvation  follows  instantaneousljf  upon  believing 
in  Christ 

This  truth,  about  which  there  can  be  no  question, 
is  of  great  interest  and  importance.  No  sinner  ever 
believes  and  then,  a  few  hours  after,  or  in  weeks  or 
years  following,  obtains  pardon.  No  ;  the  moment  a 
sinner  believes,  the  work  of  justification  is  done ;  as 
quick  as  thought,  "  He  that  believeth  is  passed  from 
death  unto  life."  By  the  very  act  of  your  trusting  in 
Christ,  God  can  be  just,  and  justify  you ;  all  your 
legal  disabilities  are  removed,  and  there  is  no  condem- 
nation for  you.  All  your  sins  are  blotted  out  at  once, 
like  a  thick  cloud ;  at  once  you  are  an  adopted  child, 
and  so  an  heir  of  God  and  joint  heir  with  Christ. 
Should  you  truly  believe  in  Christ  at  the  midnight 
hour,  and  die  while  the  clock  is  striking  that  hour, 
you  would  go  where  the  penitent  thief  went ;  and  why 
not  ?  Should  you  live  fifty  years  after  that,  and  be 
the  best  Christian  in  the  church,  would  your  good  life 
help  Christ  in  saving  you  ]  make  up  a  deficiency  in 
his  merits  ?  "  Justification  is  an  act  of  God's  free 
grace,  wherein  he  pardoneth  all  our  sins  and  accepteth 
us  as  righteous  in  his  sight,  only  for  the  righteousness 
of  Christ  imputed  to  us,  and  received  by  faith  alone." 
Sanctification  is  progressive  ;  justification  is  instanta- 
neous. What  a  gospel  this,  and  what  a  Saviour ! 
Being  persuaded  of  your  need  of  Christ  as  the  Lamb 
of  God,  and  relying  only  and  wholly  on  him,  you 


112  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

trust  in  him ;  and  so  doing  you  are  saved.  "  He  that 
believeth  shall  not  come  into  condemnation,  but  is 
passed  from  death  unto  life."  Not  only  shall  we  be 
saved  from  wrath  through  him,  but  we  are  made  holy, 
created  in  Christ  Jesus  unto  good  works ;  we  are  at 
that  moment,  born  ;  born  into  a  spiritual  world,  with 
all  that  belongs  to  the  nature  of  a  child  of  God. 

So  this  woman,  whose  example  illustrates  faith,  did 
not  return  to  her  house  and  wait  for  her  cure,  but 
with  the  touch  sensations  of  unwonted  health  took 
possession  of  her ;  she  perceived  that  she  was  healed. 
As  a  simple  touch,  with  true  faith,  saved  her  wholly, 
and  saved  her  at  once,  and  as  one  look  at  the  brazen 
serpent  healed  the  bitten  Israelite  in  the  wilderness, 
so  the  least  act  toward  Christ  which  implies  faith  is 
followed  instantly  with  his  great  salvation. 

We  often  hear  it  asked  by  an  inquirer,  '  How  shall 
I  know  when  I  am  accepted  of  God  1 '  If  you  come 
to  Christ  with  such  renunciation  of  every  other  de- 
pendence, and  with  such  confidence  that  he  is  able  and 
willing  to  save,  and  with  such  an  entire  surrender  of 
your  soul  to  him,  as  this  woman  felt,  you,  too,  will 
feel  as  she  did,  that  you  are  healed,  straightway.  If 
one  believes  and  does  not  know  it,  as  some  do,  it  is 
because  they  continue  to  expect  answers  and  wait  for 
Christ  to  reward  their  faith.  This  is  not  the  strongest 
kind  of  faith.  It  is  not  unconditional.  It  is  more 
like  partial  payments  than  a  transfer  of  every  thing 


WHO  TOUCHED  ME?  113 

at  once,  with  a  feeling  of  ntter  bankruptcy.  What 
right  has  a  sinner  to  require  that  God  should  return 
him  something  for  his  faith  ]  He  must  do  his  duty, 
and  leave  himself,  to  be  saved  or  lost,  in  the  hands  of 
God.  His  only  concern  should  be,  '  How  shall  I 
make  recompense  for  my  sins  ?  How  shall  I  get  into 
my  proper  place  before  God  as  a  sinner  ?  How  shall 
I  comply  with  his  requirements  1 '  With  this  feeling 
of  self-renunciation,  which  exalts  God  and  makes  our 
happiness  comparatively  of  no  account,  we  begin  to 
see  that  God,  for  his  name's  sake,  can  pardon  and 
save  us ;  that  help  has  been  laid  on  one  who  is  mighty ; 
and  his  merits  then  taking  the  place  of  our  poor  faith 
as  the  procuring  cause  of  pardon,  we  feel  that  our 
"  sins  are  forgiven  for  his  name's  sake."  Hope  springs 
up  in  the  soul ;  that  "  peace  with  God  "  which  comes 
from  "being  justified  by  faith"  ensues,  without  an 
intervening  moment ;  for  if  hope  does  not  come  im- 
mediately upon  believing  in  Christ,  it  is  because  we 
have  not  sufficiently  despaired  of  any  other  help,  or 
we  are  selfish,  and  think  more  of  our  happiness  than 
of  God,  and  of  our  ill  desert,  and  wish  to  make  a 
compromise  with  him,  instead  of  doing  like  the  men  of 
Calais,  who,  in  token  of  submission  to  the  king,  put 
ropes  about  their  necks,  and  went  forth  barefoot  to 
his  camp.  Let  us  feel  that  endless  banishment  from 
God  is  our  just  desert ;  let  us  take  the  punishment 
due  to  our  sins;   at  the  same  time  let  us  plead  the 


114  CHRIST  A  FRIEND 

sacrifice  made  for  us  by  God  in  Christ,  and  leave  our- 
selves in  those  wounded  hands  which  have  never  suf- 
fered one  despairing  soul  to  perish. 

The  last  thing  to  which  I  would  call  attention, 
briefly,  is  this :  — 

VI.  There  is  nothing  which  Christ  seems  to  love  so 
much  as  faith  in  him. 

Once  he  was  so  much  affected  by  it  that  he  seemed 
to  forget  the  patient  for  a  moment,  and,  turning,  said 
to  those  around  him,  "  Verily,  I  have  not  found  so 
great  faith,  no,  not  in  Israel ;  "  and  then  he  proceeded 
to  say  that  many  should  come  from  the  east  and  west, 
and  sit  down  in  the  kingdom  of  God,  while  they  of 
whom  faith  was  chiefly  to  be  expected  would  be  cast 
out.  He  loves  to  say,  "Thy  faith  hath  saved  thee." 
"According  to  thy  faith  be  it  unto  thee."  To  this 
humble  suppliant  in  the  text  he  said,  "  O  woman, 
great  is  thy  faith."  Christ  went  through  all  this 
scene  of  inquiry  as  to  who  touched  him,  in  order 
to  bring  to  notice  that  poor  woman,  as  an  illustration 
of  faith.  How  natural  this  is !  When  we  have  made 
great  efforts  and  ventured  every  thing  for  an  object, 
and  men  come  and  repose  confidence  in  us,  nothing  is 
more  gratifying.  Think  of  the  infinite  interest  which 
Christ  must  have  felt  in  doing  and  suffering  all  which 
he  did ;  and  now,  when  one  and  another  comes  and 
lavs  his  soul,  for  eternity,  in  his  hands,  and  before 


WHO  TOUCHED  ME?  115 

heaven,  earth,  and  hell,  acknowledges  him  in  his 
office  as  Redeemer  and  Saviour,  there  is  joy  in  that 
Redeemer's  breast.  Have  great  faith  in  Christ  if  you 
would  awaken  his  deep  interest  in  you;  especially  do 
it  in  the  act  of  intrusting  your  soul  to  him — in  the 
first  effort  of  faith.  If  some  of  us  could  have  the 
opportunity  which  you  now  have  of  believing  on 
Christ  for  the  first  time,  of  coming  in  darkness  and 
with  trembling,  and  saying,  '  I  am  thine  ;  save  me ; ' 
if  we  could  do  this  now,  with  all  which  we  know  of 
Christ,  it  appears  to  us  we  would  do  it  as  we  desire 
to  behold  it  done  by  you,  with  unconditional,  unfal- 
tering trust,  and  without  a  moment's  delay.  Do  not 
wait  for  him,  but  go  cast  yourself,  just  as  you  are,  at 
his  feet.  He  will  know  it ;  if  your  faith  in  him  be 
confident  and  you  are  abased  in  your  own  eyes,  he 
will  know  it  instantly  among  the  multitude  of  wor- 
shipers in  heaven  and  on  earth.  "Who  touched 
me  1 "  he  will  say,  bending  his  look  toward  you ; 
"  somebody  touched  me,  for  I  perceive  that  virtue  is 
gone  out  of  me."  You  will  perceive  that  you  are  not 
hid ;  you  will  fall  down  before  him  with  a  penitent, 
believing  heart,  and  he  will  say,  "  Son,  daughter,  be 
of  good  comfort ;  thy  faith  hath  made  thee  whole  ;  go 
in  peace." 


SERMON  VI. 


THOMAS. 


JOHN  XX.  27. 

THEN  SAITH  HE  TO  THOMAS,  REACH  HITHER  THY  FINGER,  AND  BEHOLD  MY 
HANDS,  AND  REACH  HITHER  THY  HAND,  AND  THRUST  IT  INTO  MY  SIDE; 
AND  BE   NOT   FAITHLESS,    BUT   BELIEVING. 

Thomas,  probably,  has  had  as  many  imitators  since 
his  day  as  either  of  "  the  twelve."  The  imitators  of 
the  impulsive  Peter,  only,  might  equal  them.  For 
the  human  heart  is  naturally  inclined  to  one  of  two 
extremes  —  presumption  or  despair ;  and  it  is  only 
the  grace  of  God,  in  connection  with  a  well-balanced 
mind,  which  keeps  us  from  them. 

In  company  with  his  fellow-disciples,  Thomas  had 
had  complete  proof  that  Christ  was  crucified ;  that 
nails  were  driven  through  his  hands  and  feet,  and  a 
spear  forced  into  his  side ;  that  he  had  been  taken 
from  the  cross,  laid  in  the  tomb,  and  a  great  stone 
rolled  before  the  door.  That  Christ  was  dead  and 
buried  was  to  him  as  certain  as  that  he  had  ever  seen 
him  alive. 

(116) 


THOMAS.  117 

Within  three  days  from  the  crucifixion,  the  disciples 
were  assembled  in  secret,  and  the  doors  were  shut  for 
fear  of  the  Jews.  Judas  had  gone  to  his  own  place, ' 
and  Thomas,  for  some  reason,  was  absent.  Jesus  ap- 
peared and  stood  in  the  midst  of  them.  Needing  no 
opened  door,  he  might  have  been  supposed  to  be  a 
spirit  or  apparition  ;  to  convince  them  that  it  was  he 
himself,  he  showed  them  the  prints  of  the  nails  and 
the  spear,  and  while  they  believed  not  for  joy,  and 
wondered,  he  ate  before  them,  to  place  it  beyond  all 
possible  doubt  that  he  was  not  a  spirit,  but  was  still 
in  the  flesh. 

When  Thomas  came  to  the  next  meeting  of  the 
Apostles,  and  was  told  by  them  that  they  "  had  seen 
the  Lord,"  he  may  at  first  have  supposed  that  they 
had  been  to  the  tomb,  and  had  seen  him  as  when  he 
was  first  laid  there ;  but  he  was  assured  that  Christ 
had  personally  appeared  to  them  ;  whereupon  he  may 
have  entertained  the  supposition  which  they  themselves 
made,  that  his  spirit  had  appeared ;  but  they  testified 
to  his  eating  before  them,  to  their  handling  him,  and 
to  the  prints  of  the  nails  and  the  spear.  In  the  first 
place,  no  impostor  could  have  assumed  such  wounds  ; 
and  in  the  second  place,  Christ  Avould  not  have  la- 
bored as  he  did  to  make  demonstration  of  his  bodily 
presence,  had  he  been  only  a  spirit.  All  this,  how- 
ever, was  lost  upon  this  disciple.  "Except  I  shall 
see  in  his  hands  the  print  of  the  nails,  and  put  my 


118  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

finger  in  the  print  of  the  nails,  and  thrust  my  hand 
into  his  side,  I  will  not  believe." 

We  can  not  hesitate  to  pronounce  this  unbelief, 
under  these  circumstances,  unreasonable.  Ten  men, 
whom  he  knew,  declared  with  unvarying  testimony 
that  they  had  seen  Christ  alive,  in  his  original  form 
and  person.  His  acquaintance  with  them  must  have 
convinced  him  that  they  had  no  wrong  motive  in  their 
assertion ;  and  he  could  assign  no  reason  for  not  be- 
lieving them,  but  the  seeming  impossibility  of  the 
thing.  But  that  impossibility  appeared  as  great  to 
them  as  to  him ;  they  could  judge  as  well  as  he  of 
the  evidence,  which,  in  their  view,  outweighed  the 
improbabilities.  It  seems,  however,  that  their  asser- 
tion was  without  effect.  Thomas  refused  to  believe 
except  upon  actual  sight  and  touch.  We  can  not 
commend  him  in  this  thing.  Caution,  and  freedom 
from  credulity,  are  commendable  ;  but  a  state  of  mind 
which  can  not  appreciate  clear  proof,  is  not  good. 
We  are  not  informed  of  any  particular  cause  of  this 
state  of  mind  in  Thomas ;  whether  he  belonged  to  that 
sluggish  class  of  minds  which  do  not  feel  the  power 
of  evidence  so  early  as  those  around  them ;  or  whether 
he  was  extremely  averse  to  every  thing  out  of  the 
ordinary  track,  especially  to  the  supernatural  ;  or 
whether  he  was  obstinate,  and  would  not  believe  be- 
cause his  brethren  were  earnest  to  convince  him,  or 
because  they  touched  his  pride  by  their  wonder  or  pity 


THOMAS.  119 

at  his  hesitancy.  If  the  latter  were  the  case,  his  words 
were  a  retort  upon  them,  intimating  that  when  he  too 
had  enjoyed  the  palpable  proofs  which  had  been  af- 
forded them,  it  would  be  time  to  upbraid  him  if  he 
should  not  believe.  But  perhaps  the  crucifixion  had 
destroyed  his  hope  and  confidence  in  his  Master,  and 
he  therefore  may  have  absented  himself  from  the  com- 
pany of  the  disciples,  unwilling  to  be  connected  fur- 
ther with  that  which  had  raised,  only  to  destroy,  such 
hopes. 

But  all  these  things  together  formed  no  good  excuse 
for  not  receiving  the  testimony  of  ten  men  to  an  al- 
leged occurrence,  in  which  they  had  had  the  evidence 
of  eyes,  and  ears,  and  touch. 

There  was  something  extremely  interesting,  how- 
ever, in  the  character  of  Thomas,  notwithstanding 
this  unbelief  When  the  disciples  sought  to  dissuade 
Christ  from  going  into  Judea  to  see  Lazarus,  who  was 
sick,  by  saying  to  him,  "  The  Jews  lately  sought  to 
stone  thee,  and  goest  thou  thither  again  1 "  and  when 
Christ  persisted  in  his  intention,  Thomas  said  to  his 
fellow-disciples,  "  Let  us  also  go,  that  we  may  die 
with  him."  This  was  not  said  of  Lazarus,  for  Christ 
had  just  declared  that  Lazarus  was  dead  ;  it  was  a 
beautiful  and  affecting  instance  of  devoted  attachment 
to  Christ.  His  language,  when  Christ  had  appeared 
to  him,  and  had  satisfied  him,  shows  a  heart  capable  of 
strong  emotions  ;  so  that  we  probably  err  if  we  place 


120  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

this  disciple  among  the  cokl-hearted,  the  sceptical,  or 
even  the  timid.  A  man  who  was  the  most  forward 
among  the  twelve  to  suffer  martyrdom  with  his  Lord, 
and  that,  too,  not  by  a  general  profession,  but  in  one 
particular  scene  of  peril,  and  who  emboldened  the  rest 
by  his  courage,  surely  vindicates  himself  from  any 
charge  of  timidity.  Still  we  can  not  praise  him  for 
"  not  believing  them  which  had  seen "  the  Saviour 
''  after  he  had  risen."  He  should  have  been  slow  to 
admit  uncertain  evidence  on  so  vital  a  subject ;  ready 
as  he  was  to  die  with  Christ,  and,  no  doubt,  for  him, 
he  can  not  be  blamed  for  requiring  sufficient  grounds 
for  venturing  into  that  martyrdom  which,  neverthe- 
less, he  would  not  shun  ;  but  still  it  is  injurious  — 
indeed,  destructive  to  the  cause  of  truth,  human  and 
divine  —  not  to  believe  in  view  of  suitable  evidence  ; 
it  is  ruinous  to  personal  comfort  and  improvement, 
and  may  be  fatal  to  the  soul. 

Few  things  in  the  conduct  of  Christ,  as  a  Friend, 
are  marked  with  greater  kindness  than  his  treatment 
of  Thomas.  At  his  next  interview  with  his  disciples, 
when  they  were  assembled  "  and  Thomas  with  them," 
after  the  salutation,  "  Peace  be  with  you,"  it  seems 
as  though  the  eye  of  Christ  rested  upon  Thomas.  It 
was  not  for  reproach,  nor  for  reproof,  nor  was  it  a 
cold,  retributive  look ;  nor  did  the  Saviour  then  pass 
him  by  to  speak  to  the  rest,  leaving  the  incredulous 
disciple  to  amend  his  error.     He  knew  what  Thomas 


THOMAS.  121 

had  said ;  and  then,  instead  of  rebuke,  he  condescends 
to  give  him  the  required  proof:  "Reach  hither  thy 
finger,  and  behold  my  hands ;  and  reach  hither  thy 
hand,  and  thrust  it  into  my  side ;  and  be  not  faithless, 
but  believing."  We  may  venture  to  say  that  it  was 
not  merely  the  satisfying  proof  which  Thomas  then 
received,  but  the  affecting  kindness  with  which  it  was 
afforded,  that  made  him  exclaim,  with  a  degree  of 
faith  which  seems  to  transcend  all  the  previous  attain- 
ments of  the  disciples  as  to  their  knowledge  of  the 
Saviour's  deity,  "  My  Lord  and  my  God ! "  If  all  the 
traditions  of  this  man's  intrepidity  and  usefulness  in 
Parthia,  Persia,  and  India  were  true,  they,  neverthe- 
less, could  not  surpass  that  one  act  of  faith  in  these 
words  which,  under  the  circumstances,  was  truly  sub- 
lime. "  My  Lord  and  my  God ! "  No  reproof,  no 
check  is  given  to  this  divine  worship,  but,  "  Thomas, 
because  thou  hast  seen  me  thou  hast  believed ;  blessed 
are  they  which  have  not  seen  and  yet  have  believed." 
Perhaps  there  are  few  things  in  which  so  many  will 
appreciate  kindness  in  Christ,  or  feel  that  he  is  more 
truly  a  Friend  to  them,  as  with  regard  to  difficulties  in 
believing.  It  will  accord  with  the  spirit  and  inten- 
tion of  this  instructive  act  of  kindness  on  the  part  of 
Christ,  and  with  his  accompanying  words,  if  we  con- 
sider some  of  the  various  forms  of  unbelief  on  the 
subject  of  religion,  the  difficulties  which  hinder  faith, 
and  endeavor  to  see  if,  after  all,  Christ  has  not  in  each 


122  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

case  done  as  much  to  help  our  faith,  and  with  equal 
forbearance  and  kindness,  as  in  the  case  of  Thomas. 

I.  Some  are  not  satisfied  with  the  evidence  for  the 
truth  of  the  Bible. 

They  have  been  exposed  to  the  cavils  of  unbe- 
lievers, in  books,  or  from  pulpits,  or  from  lectures,  or 
in  their  early  education,  or  from  bad  company.  But 
what  should  constitute  satisfactory  evidence  that  the 
Bible  is,  as  it  professes  to  be,  from  God  ]  The  answer 
is,  The  same  that  would  satisfy  us  in  any  other  case. 
The  testimony  of  a  sufficient  number  of  witnesses, 
competent  as  to  understanding,  and  with  opportu- 
nities for  knowing  that  which  they  assert,  and  of  un- 
impeachable honesty,  should  be  received  in  relation  to 
things  which  address  themselves  to  the  senses.  The 
witnesses  to  the  truth  of  the  Bible  are  the  Apostles, 
some  of  whom  wrote  a  history  of  events,  things  which 
they  saw  and  heard,  which  the  others  never  contra- 
dicted. They  had  no  worldly  motive  in  making  these 
assertions.  They  lost  earthly  favor,  were  persecuted, 
imprisoned,  beaten,  stoned,  and  crucified,  and  yet  per- 
sisted in  their  testimony  as  to  the  things  which  they 
said  they  had  seen  or  heard.  Several  of  them  have 
given  us  histories  of  Christ ;  in  these  there  are  cer- 
tain discrepancies  which  do  not  affect  the  history, 
while  they  show  that  the  writers  did  not  combine  to 
make  a  story  and  palm  it  upon  the  world.     Had  they 


THOMAS.  123 

designed  to  do  so,  one  of  them  would  not  have  said 
that  "the  thieves"  who  were  crucified  with  Christ 
railed  on  him,  while  another,  with  that  record  before 
him,  made  mention  of  only  one  that  reviled.  They 
would  have  been  careful,  had  they  been  writing  and 
publishing  a  fiction,  to  make  it  correspond  in  every 
statement  of  facts ;  but  the  few  unessential  discrep- 
ancies in  their  several  histories  show  that  there  was 
no  craft  nor  dishonesty.  Besides,  had  they  asserted 
things  which  they  had  merely  thought  or  felt,  im- 
prisonment and  torture  would  have  corrected  their 
mistake  in  some  instances ;  all  would  not  have  been 
fanatics  in  sight  of  crucifixion ;  but  the  things  to 
which  they  testified  were  things  to  which  they  pro- 
fessed to  have  the  witness  of  their  own  eyes  and  ears, 
and  it  is  incredible  that  they  should  have  been  tor- 
mented to  death,  and  not  have  confessed  imposture  if 
they  had  not  seen  and  heard  those  things  which  they 
related.  From  some  of  them,  in  moments  of  weakness 
and  fear,  the  truth  would  have  been  extorted ;  but 
they  sealed  their  testimony  with  their  blood.  We  do 
not  see  how  a  fair  mind  can  resist  such  evidence. 

But  admitting  it,  what  follows  1  That  Christ  was 
the  Son  of  God,  and  that  he  commissioned  them  to 
publish  his  gospel.  If  so,  the  New  Testament  must 
be  the  word  of  God ;  and  since  these  inspired  men  de- 
clare that  all  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God, 
and  that  holy  men  of  old  in  writing  the  Old  Testa- 


12-4  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

merit  spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  it 
follows  that  the  Old  Testament  is  the  word  of  God. 
So  that  if  we  believe  these  Apostles  to  be  honest  men, 
the  Bible  is  the  word  of  God ;  if  we  do  not  believe 
the  Bible  to  be  the  word  of  God,  we  must  reject  the 
evidence  of  the  Apostles'  honesty;  and  if  so,  to  be 
consistent,  we  must  reject  every  thing  which  rests 
on  human  testimony. 

Christ  might  appropriately  address  every  one  who 
hesitates  to  receive  the  Bible  as  the  word  of  God  on 
such  testimony,  for  substance  as  he  did  Thomas.  He 
might  bid  him  reach  his  finger  and  behold  the  hands  of 
one  and  another  Apostle  who  suffered  crucifixion  in  full 
knowledge  of  the  awful  nature  of  that  torment,  rather 
than  admit  that  the  things  which  he  had  seen,  and 
heard,  and  preached  were  not  true.  Let  the  histories 
of  those  times  be  examined,  and  it  will  be  found  that 
the  New  Testament  was  written  by  men  whose  hon- 
esty is  proved  by  their  voluntary  sufferings  and  death. 
But  how  can  one  who  rejects  the  New  Testament  read 
other  histories  with  any  confidence  in  their  truth  1 
How  can  he  know,  upon  his  principles,  that  any  book 
is  authentic,  genuine,  or  credible  ? 

II.  Some  are  not  satisfied  with  the  evidence  for  the 
doctrines  of  the  Bible,  as  commonli/  received. 

We  should  determine  what  the  Bible  teaches,  as  we 
judge  with  respect  to  any  other  book. 


*        THOMAS.  125 

Was  the  Bible  written  by  those  who  profess  to  have 
written  it?  If  we  believe  this,  we  are  to  ascertain 
what  it  teaches  by  finding  what  is  its  general  tenor. 
This,  however,  is  to  be  added:  the  Bible  professes  to 
be  a  revelation  —  not  a  history  of  things  previously 
known,  but  a  revelation  from  God.  All  that  we 
are  to  seek  for  is,  '  What  does  the  Bible  teach  1 ' 
Here  is  the  important  office  of  reason.  Its  general 
tenor,  as  in  all  other  books,  must  decide  this  ques- 
tion. Have  you  examined  the  book  for  yourself? 
Do  you  or  do  you  not  find  certain  truths  there  ?  No 
matter  whether  our  teachers  assert  or  deny  these 
things,  or  whether  they  are  above  reason,  or,  as  we 
may  erroneously  think,  contrary  to  reason.  Do  we  or 
do  we  not  find  them  asserted  in  the  Bible,  judging  of  its 
language  on  the  same  principles  upon  which  we  judge 
of  the  meaning  of  a  common  book,  or  of  human  lan- 
guage in  any  form  1  If  you  do  not  find  them  there, 
no  man  has  dominion  over  your  conscience ;  to  God 
you  must  stand  or  fall.  For,  if  by  the  ordinary  rules 
of  interpretation,  such  as  we  use  in  reading  any  book, 
the  language  of  the  Bible  does  not  convey  to  your 
mind  these  truths,  you  are  responsible  only  to  God  for 
your  conclusion.  If  we  find  these  doctrines  there, 
unbelief  of  them,  on  any  ground,  is  unreasonable. 
You  would  receive  the  witness  of  men  in  any  matter, 
however  incomprehensible  and  contrary  to  experience, 

affecting  your  life,  if  it  were  much  less  clearly  estab- 
11* 


126  CHRIST  A  FRIEI*). 

lished.  The  doctrines  of  Scripture  have  one  great 
truth  for  their  centre,  viz.,  that  Christ  died  for  us. 
Belief  in  them,  therefore,  is  not  a  mere  speculation. 
With  regard  to  any  one  of  these  truths,  Christ  might 
appeal  to  you,  by  the  evidences  that  he  was  wounded 
for  your  transgressions,  not  to  reject  it  as  you  value 
your  soul. 

III.  Some  do  not  receive  the  joromises  and  threat- 
enings  of  God,  as  contained  in  the  Bible. 

If  you  believe  that  the  Bible  is  the  word  of  God, 
there  is  no  reason  that  will  abide  the  scrutiny  of  truth, 
nor  of  the  last  judgment,  for  not  receiving  the  prom- 
ises of  God,  and  believing  and  fearing  his  threat- 
enings.  If  God,  therefore,  promises  pardon  upon 
repentance  and  faith  in  Christ,  and  we  do  not  believe 
him,  we  have  no  excuse.  If  he  declares  his  willing- 
ness to  forgive  all  our  sins,  and  w^e  can  not  trust  him ; 
if  Christ  declares  himself  able  and  willing  to  save  unto 
the  uttermost  all  who  come  unto  God  by  him,  and  we 
withhold  confidence  in  these  words,  we  are  unbelievers. 
If  he  declares  that  the  wages  of  sin  is  death,  and  that 
the  wicked  shall  finally  perish,  and  we  are  not  prac- 
tically affected  by  these  things  so  as  to  forsake  sin 
and  turn  to  God,  we  are  guilty  of  unbelief  What 
testimony  would  we  have  1  We  should  not  be  per- 
suaded though  one  rose  from  the  dead.  What  clearer, 
stronger  language  could  even  he  employ  1 


THOMAS.  127 

IV.  Some  are  not  satisfied  ivith  the  evide?ices  of 
their  acceptance  with  God,  and  on  this  ground  neglect 
certain  Christian  j^rivileges  and  duties. 

Satisfactory  evidence  of  acceptance  with  God  should 
be  the  correspondence  of  our  feelings,  in  view  of  re- 
ligious subjects  and  objects,  with  those  of  good  men 
in  the  Bible.  Take  the  history  and  writings  of  those 
men,  notice  their  feelings  in  view  of  their  sins,  in  view 
of  God,  and  with  regard  to  the  Saviour  of  the  world. 
Do  we  find  that  we  have  now,  or  that  we  have  ever 
had,  such  feelings'?  Consider  the  conversation  and 
the  prayers  of  those  Avho  give  evidence  of  being 
Christians.  Do  our  feelings  upon  religious  subjects 
agree,  in  the  main,  with  theirs  1     Again,  — 

Are  you  conscious  of  a  sincere  endeavor  to  do  the 
will  of  God  1  Are  you  influenced  to  duty  because  God 
requires  it  ?  Do  you  endeavor  to  abstain  from  evil 
because  God  forbids  it  ?  In  a  word,  does  the  will  of 
God,  so  far  as  it  is  made  known  to  you  by  your  con- 
science and  his  word,  constitute  the  chosen  rule  of 
your  conduct "?  If  an  affirmative  answer  to  these 
questions  is  forced  upon  you  by  your  conscience,  and 
you  still  neglect  to  act  as  though  you  were  a  Chris- 
tian, you  may  be  guilty  of  sin,  unless  you  are  so  in- 
competent to  act  in  view  of  evidence,  that  you  are  not 
responsible  for  what  you  do.  There  are  some  that  are 
compelled  to  admit  these  things ;  they  disrelish  things 
which  interfere   with    religion,   yet    they  have  never 


128  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

done  their  duty  as  Christians,  because  they  are  able 
to  doubt ;  and  because  they  can  doubt,  they  think  they 
are  excused.  Some  appear  to  feel  that  it  is  modest  to 
be  distrustful  and  diffident ;  some,  that  it  is  humility 
to  deny  the  evidences  of  their  Christian  faith,  and 
of  what  God  has  done  for  them.  It  is  extremely 
dangerous  to  trifle  with  our  Christian  hope.  "We 
are  saved  by  hope ; "  when  we  lose  it,  the  anchor  is 
lost.  Some  who,  if  they  would  be  decided,  and  act  in 
view  of  the  evidence  which  they  already  have,  would 
be  rooted  and  built  up  in  Christ,  may,  in  consequence 
of  timidity  or  irresolution,  and  neglecting  known  duty, 
suffer  much  from  despondence,  and  lose  great  oppor- 
tunities of  being  useful.  Besides,  we  can  not  tell 
when  and  where  doubts  and  fears,  which  result  from 
humility,  cease,  and  criminal  unbelief  begins. 

In  all  the  cases  which  we  have  considered,  there  is 
a  want  of  reasonable  faith.  The  evidence  is  such  as 
should  satisfy  the  mind  ;  but  for  various  reasons  some 
remain  sceptical  and  careless  respecting  the  word  of 
God ;  some  have  strong  prejudices  against  the  doctrines 
of  the  Bible ;  some  refuse  to  admit  the  promises  and 
threatenings  of  the  word  of  God ;  and  some  refuse  to 
acknowledge  the  evidence  of  God's  grace  in  their  souls. 
It  was  no  word  of  commendation  when  Christ  said, 
"  Except  ye  see  signs  and  wonders,  ye  will  not  believe." 

To  all  these  the  following  truths  will  be  appro- 
priate :  — 


THOMAS.  129 

1.  Faith  is  peculiat'li/  acceptable  to  God. 

The  man  who  is  called,  by  way  of  eminence,  "  the 
friend  of  God,"  and  on  whom,  more  than  upon  all 
who  ever  lived,  God  bestowed  commendation  and 
blessings,  was  one  who  was  preeminent  for  his  faith. 
Every  consideration  was  opposed  to  faith  and  obe- 
dience, with  the  exception  of  this — God  has  command- 
ed. On  the  strength  of  this  command,  he  obeyed  in 
a  transaction  which  cost  him  the  sacrifice  of  his  par 
rental  love,  for  he  received  Isaac  from  the  dead ;  he 
had  gone  through  with  all  the  sufferings  which  be- 
longed to  the  separation  up  to  the  moment  when  God 
stayed  his  hand.  It  was  he  who,  at  the  word  of  God, 
left  his  father's  house,  and  went  out,  not  knowing 
whither  he  went.  The  deeds  of  those  great  and  good 
men  and  women  enumerated  in  the  eleventh  of  He- 
brews, were  acts  of  faith.  The  reason  why  God 
places  such  value  and  honor  upon  faith  is  evidently 
this :  Faith  is  the  only  means  by  which  God  can  se- 
cure our  obedience  and  love.  We  can  not  see  him ; 
if  we  could,  there  would  be  little  room  for  faith. 
Placed  as  we  are  in  a  world  where  we  must  act  with 
reference  to  unseen  objects,  faith  is  as  necessary  to 
their  influence  over  us  as  the  atmosphere  is  essential 
to  the  influence  of  the  sun  upon  the  eye.  Without 
faith,  God  has  no  way  of  influencing  a  responsible 
creature  except  by  force,  which  he  will  not  employ 
with  our  minds,  even  to  secure  or  prevent  any  thing 


130  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

which  would  be  for  our  greatest  good  or  injury.  His 
authority  over  us,  therefore,  is  annihilated  where  there 
is  no  foith,  or,  it  is  reduced  to  the  authority  which 
he  exercises  over  inanimate  things.  Even  when  his 
Spirit  changes  our  hearts,  the  object,  the  effect,  is  to 
"  work  in  us  the  work  of  faith,  with  power."  Hence 
every  thing  in  his  intercourse  with  us  has  for  its  great 
design  to  promote  faith,  and  the  more  this  prevails  in 
us  the  greater  is  the  connection  and  intercourse  be- 
tween us  and  him.  That  there  is  nothing  arbitrary 
in  this  great  stress  which  is  laid  on  faith  is  evident 
from  this,  that  we  are  wtII  pleased  with  it  in  those 
over  whom  we  have  authority.  In  no  way  do  chil- 
dren, and  pupils,  and  servants  show  their  confidence 
in  us,  and  attachment  to  us,  more  than  in  things  which 
prove  the  strength  of  their  faith.  So  when  the  cen- 
turion illustrated  his  faith  in  Christ  by  speaking  of 
the  soldiers  under  him,  and  of  their  faithful  obedience, 
and  made  use  of  them  in  humbly  arguing  against  the 
necessity  that  Christ  should  come  under  his  roof,  the 
Saviour,  deeply  affected  by  what  the  man  had  said, 
turned  from  him  to  those  who  stood  near,  and  com- 
mended his  faith,  warning  the  Jews,  by  this  Gentile, 
that  they  who  had  the  strongest  reasons  for  faith 
would  be  surpassed  in  it  by  many  of  the  heathen,  and 
fail  to  be  saved.  Other  cases  in  which  Christ  com- 
mended faith,  readily  occur  to  the  mind.  We  are  told 
by  an  Apostle  that  if  severely  tried,  and  proved  sincere, 


THOMAS.  131 

it  will  "  be  found  to  praise,  and  honor,  and  glory  at 
the  appearing  of  Jesus  Christ." 

Picture  to  your  mind  Thomas  bidden  to  examine 
the  hands  and  side  of  Christ,  and,  in  contrast,  the 
woman  who  came  behind  him  and  touched  him.  Most 
unlike  were  these  two  cases,  and  the  feelings  which 
governed  them ;  one  was  the  approach  of  unbelief,  the 
other,  of  faith  ;  and  far  diiferent  were  the  feelings  and 
words  of  Christ  to  these  two  persons.  We  sympa- 
thize with  Thomas  in  being  treated,  perhaps,  as  an 
unreasonable  child  by  a  judicious  and  kind  parent 
who  makes  indulgence  sometimes  a  powerful  rebuke. 
We  covet  the  joy  and  the  reward  of  the  humble 
woman  whose  faith  was  such  as  the  Saviour  blessed. 

We  are  prepared  to  see,  therefore,  that  — 

2.   Want  of  faith  is  jjeculiarl^  displeasing  to  God. 

The  leading  sin  of  which  Christ  said  the  Holy 
Spirit  would  reprove  the  world  was,  "  because  they 
believe  not  on  me."  It  is  moreover  said,  in  answer 
to  a  very  important  question,  "  This  is  the  will  of 
God,  that  ye  believe  on  him  whom  he  hath  sent."  And 
again:  "He  that  believeth  not  God,  hath  made  him  a 
liar."  The  threatenings  of  the  gospel  are  chiefly  di- 
rected against  unbelief  If  we  refuse  the  evidence  of 
God's  being,  of  his  word,  of  his  truths,  when  we  have 
received  the  knowledge  of  them,  we  disown  the  au- 
thority of  God,  and  we  see  the  consequences  in  the 


132  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

fate  of  multitudes  in  that  generation  who  came  up  out 
of  Egypt  with  Moses.  In  vain  do  we  plead  diffidence, 
or  humility,  or  fear  of  presumption.  There  are  some 
things  which  we  must  believe,  or  we  must  perish. 

3.  The  co7iseqiiences  of  unbelief  upon  the  character 
and  happiness  are  melancholy. 

When  we  do  not  act  in  view  of  evidence,  but  allow 
ourselves  to  doubt  and  speculate,  we  resort  to  a  great 
variety  of  books  and  teachers  in  hope  of  relief;  but, 
like  cross  lights,  they  confuse  the  subject ;  we  get  into 
deeper  perplexity,  with  no  foundation,  no  boundaries, 
nothing  settled  with  regard  to  truth  and  error.  If 
there  is  an  intelligent  being  in  a  more  deplorable  state 
than  another,  it  is  one  who  seems  to  understand  every 
thing,  but  believes  nothing ;  who  can  furnish  an  objec- 
tion against  every  truth;  make  his  ability  to  doubt,  or 
the  doubt  expressed  by  some  one  else,  a  reason  for  not 
believing,  and  whose  mind  is  loose  and  chaotic  on  the 
subject  of  religion.  There  are  those  among  them 
who  are  preeminently  to  be  pitied  —  those  who  are 
sceptical  about  their  own  characters  as  Christians, 
who  steadfastly  deny  that  they  have  experienced  any 
religious  exercises  of  mind,  and,  with  awakened  con- 
sciences and  keen  sensibilities,  persist  in  shutting  the 
door  of  hope  against  themselves  because  they  demand 
more  vivid  evidences  of  those  things  which  they  think 
they  are  required  to  experience. 


THOMAS.  133 

But  how  are  we  to  distinguish  between  presumption 
and  faith,  between  credulity  and  belief  upon  good  evi- 
dence 1  Suppose  that  Thomas  had  put  such  a  ques- 
tion to  his  brethren.  His  fear  of  being  credulous,  his 
preconceived  conviction  that  the  resurrection  of  Christ 
was  impossible,  his  depression  and  even  despair  at  the 
Saviour's  apparent  defeat,  and  the  ruin  of  his  cause, 
were  mental  operations  of  whose  justice  and  propri- 
ety he  could  not  be  so  assured  as  ten  men  were  of 
having  heard  Christ  speak,  seen  him  eat,  and  of  having 
seen  prints  of  nails  in  his  hands  and  feet.  Why 
should  the  impressions  of  such  things  on  his  own 
mind  be  more  correct  than  on  theirs "?  Why  should 
they  be  duped,  and  he  prove  to  be  the  only  reasonable 
man  of  the  eleven  1  For  every  reason,  it  would  have 
been  right  and  good  that  he  should  have  yielded  to 
such  testimony  as  they  furnished. 

It  will  assist  faith  to  consider  that,  — 

4.    A  good  conscience  is  essential  to  faith. 

"  Holding  faith  and  a  good  conscience,  which,"  viz., 
a  good  conscience,  "  some  having  put  away,  concern- 
ing faith  have  made  shipwreck."  Perhaps  we  never 
knew  a  case  of  apostasy  from  the  truth  which  did  not 
begin  in  the  heart  and  practice,  in  the  commission  or 
the  purposing  of  a  secret  or  open  sin.  The  conscience 
being  violated,  the  truths  of  God's  word  must  be  de- 
nied ;  for  a  guilty  conscience  and  the  truth  together, 


134  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

make  hell.  If  we  find  one  denying  any  essential 
truth  which  he  once  believed,  we  may  be  sure  that  he 
never  practically  believed  it ;  or  that  he  has  grown 
cold  in  his  religious  affections,  and  fallen  into  some 
snare ;  that  he  has  committed,  or  is  wishing  to  com- 
mit, some  transgression,  to  enter  into  some  unsuitable 
relation,  or  in  general  to  rid  himself  of  religious  re- 
straints. That  which  is  the  cause  of  apostasy  is  also 
a  preventive  of  faith.  If  we  do  wrong,  we  can  not 
expect  to  have  faith.  "  If  any  man  will  do  his  will, 
he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine,  whether  it  be  of  God." 
Hence  repentance  is  required  in  connection  with  faith. 
If  we  live  in  sin,  if  we  willfully  neglect  duty,  we  can 
not  receive  the  truth ;  it  would  torment  us.  Very 
many  doubts  and  difficulties  with  regard  to  matters 
of  faith  proceed  from  an  evil  heart.  "  With  the  heart 
man  believeth  unto  righteousness." 

5.  It  may  help  us  to  believe,  if  we  begin  with  de- 
fining and  settling  one  truth  after  another. 

When  a  place  for  building  is  loose  and  unfit  for  a 
foundation,  piles  are  driven ;  the  ground  is  strength- 
ened ;  the  beams  may  then  be  laid.  The  deliberate 
settlement  of  one  truth  after  another,  is  like  this  fixing 
of  a  foundation  ;  we  should  begin  with  things  which 
are  plain,  hold  fast  to  them,  and  add  to  them  by  de- 
grees, seeking  competent  instruction,  and,  being  con- 
vinced, act  upon  those  convictions  if  agreeable  to  the 


THOMAS.  135 

word  of  God.  We  should  undertake  this  as  an  indo- 
lent, neglectful  man,  whose  business  is  in  confusion, 
would,  upon  reformation,  begin  to  bring  his  affairs 
into  order.  If  we  leave  our  personal  hopes  and  pros- 
pects in  an  uncertain  state,  and  sickness  and  death 
surprise  us,  we  are  indeed  a  melancholy  spectacle, 
drawing  near  to  eternity,  in  darkness  which  is  re- 
lieved only  by  glimmers  making  it  still  more  fearful, 
and  still  perplexed  as  to  the  way  of  salvation.  "  Give 
glory  to  the  Lord  your  God  before  he  cause  darkness, 
and  before  your  feet  stumble  upon  the  dark  moun- 
tains, and  while  ye  look  for  light  he  turn  it  into  the 
shadow  of  death,  and  make  it  gross  darkness."  If  the 
Bible  is  the  word  of  God,  the  only  written  revelation 
which  we  are  to  receive,  the  authentic  message  of  God 
to  man,  it  is  a  truth  of  infinite  importance,  and  we 
should  know  it ;  if  its  doctrines  are  true,  they  relate 
to  our  future,  eternal  interests  ;  if  we  are  Christians, 
what  else  is  comparatively  of  any  importance,  and  if 
we  are  not,  would  we  gain  the  whole  world  to  lose  our 
souls  1  The  obedient,  faithful  followers  of  Christ 
will  receive  '  light  which  shineth  more  and  more  unto 
the  perfect  day.'  "  For  whosoever  hath,  to  him  shall 
be  given,  and  he  shall  have  more  abundantly ;  but  who- 
soever hath  not,  from  him  shall  be  taken  away  even 
that  which  he  hath."  Bunyan,  in  his  '  Holy  War,' 
represents  Diabolus  assailing  Mansoul  with  an  army 
of  forty  thousand  '  Doubters.'      There  are  no   more 


136  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

formidable  enemies  than  those  which  are  represented 
under  this  figure ;  there  seems  to  be  no  end  of  them 
when  they  once  get  possession  of  us  ;  they  confuse 
every  thing,  they  take  from  us  even  those  things  which 
we  had  supposed  were  immovably  fixed. 

But  if,  notwithstanding  a  clear  persuasion  of  our 
duty,  we  find  ourselves  embarrassed,  with  no  real  in- 
terest in  religion,  seemingly  incapable  of  feeling  or 
acting  correctly,  and  yet  persuaded  that  we  are  in  the 
wrong,  there  is  one  thing  which  we  can  do  with  cer- 
tain success.  The  Saviour  of  the  world  is  a  Friend 
to  the  unbelieving;  for  he  is  the  Friend  of  sinners, 
and  unbelief  creates  peculiar  necessity  for  his  power 
and  grace.  Only  let  us  be  willing  to  be  taught  by 
him,  and  to  "receive  with  meekness  the  ingrafted 
word,"  as  a  tree  receives  any  graft  which  the  hus- 
bandman sees  fit  to  insert,  however  foreign  to  the 
nature  of  the  tree.  As  we  sometimes  wish  to  disclose 
our  mental  troubles  to  an  experienced,  skillful  man, 
who  will  disentangle  our  thoughts,  and  show  us  how 
to  take  the  first  step  in  thinking  and  feeling  correctly, 
we  may  go  to  the  Saviour  of  men  with  our  difficulties 
and  perplexities,  to  him  who,  in  the  wilderness,  was 
tempted  with  the  casuistry  of  Satan,  and  knows  how 
to  succor  them  that  are  tempted,  who  is  the  light  of 
the  world,  and  whose  readiness  to  help  us  is  illustrat- 
ed in  his  kind  treatment  of  Thomas.  See  how  the 
faith  of  that  disciple  rose  in  a  few  moments  from  be- 


THOMAS.  137 

low  the  common  level  to  the  very  height  of  confidence 
and  love.  '  So  would  mine,'  you  say,  '  if  Christ  should 
do  some  special  act  of  kindness  to  me,  as  he  did  to 
him.  Blessed  indeed  was  he,'  you  think,  '  to  have 
had  his  doubts  thus  wholly  removed.'  But  Christ  did 
not  consider  him  so  '  blessed '  as  you  esteem  him. 
"Jesus  saith  unto  him,  Thomas,  because  thou  hast 
seen  me,  thou  hast  believed.  Blessed  are  they  that 
have  not  seen,  and  yet  have  believed."  Here  is  a 
gentle  reproof,  an  intimation  that  he  did  wrong  in  not 
receiving  competent  testimony,  a  disparaging  of  the 
virtue  in  believing  that  which  is  forced  upon  us  by 
demonstration,  and  a  commendation  of  those  who 
exercise  the  reason  which  God  has  given  us  to  assist 
our  faith,  and  who,  without  requiring  palpable  evi- 
dence, believe. 

While  this  is  our  duty,  it  is  also  true  that  in  pro- 
portion as  we  are  thus  inclined  to  feel  and  act,  God 
reveals  to  us  views  and  imparts  feelings  which  are  his 
special  gifts.  For  there  is  nothing  which  is  more  pe- 
culiarly the  gift  of  God  than  faith,  so  contrary  is  it 
to  our  natural  disposition,  which  is  against  God  and 
spiritual  things ;  and  its  effects  upon  the  mind  and 
heart  are  so  beyond  the  ordinary  operations  of  the 
understanding.  So,  if  one  is  wholly  set  against  a  cer- 
tain temptation  to  which  he  feels  himself  peculiarly 
liable,  he  finds  an  unaccountable  deadening  of  his 
sensibilities  or  a  strong  repugnance  to  the  sin  in  a 


138  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

moment  of  surprising  assault  by  it,  making  him  feel 
that  it  is  not  merely  the  force  of  habit  which  saves 
him,  but  that  God  has  made  a  way  for  his  escape. 
So  that  here,  as  every  where  in  the  dealings  of  God 
with  us,  we  see  illustrated  the  necessity  and  use  of 
means,  and  also  the  coinciding  power  of  God  work- 
ing in  us  "  both  to  will  and  to  do  of  his  good  pleasure." 
'  Both  to  will  and  to  do.'  It  is  one  of  the  deep  things 
of  God,  and  ought  to  be  a  source  of  satisfaction  and 
gratitude  with  us,  that  God  can  '  work  in  us  to  will,' 
and  leave  us  accountable  and  free.  Instead  of  cavil- 
ing at  it,  and  being  jealous,  we  should  love  to  say, 
"  We  are  the  clay,  and  thou  our  potter."  The  more 
that  God  does  for  us,  the  more  conscious  are  we  of 
voluntary  eiFort ;  as  Paul  says,  "  striving  according  to 
his  working,  which  worketh  in  me  mightily."  The 
father  of  the  child  which  was  possessed  with  a  devil 
understood  this  doctrine  without  the  aid  of  meta- 
physics. "  Jesus  said  unto  him,  If  thou  canst  believe, 
all  things  are  possible  to  him  that  believeth.  And 
straightway  the  father  of  the  child  cried  out,  and 
said,  with  tears,  Lord,  I  believe  ;  help  thou  mine  un- 
belief." Perhaps  he  mistook  his  desire  to  believe,  for 
faith  ;  it  was  an  innocent  mistake.  A  heart  strongly 
moved  with  desire  to  know  the  truth  shall  never  be 
disappointed  ;  but  its  desires  will  be  accepted,  its  hun- 
ger and  thirst  after  righteousness  is  a  beatitude,  and 
that  heart  "  shall  be  filled." 


THOMAS.  139 

There  is  one  form  of  unbelief  to  which  the  young 
are  liable,  growing  out  of  jealousy  lest  it  be  said  that 
they  are  not  independent  in  their  opinions,  but  be- 
lieve because  they  were  so  taught.  Sometimes  they 
are  carried,  by  this  desire  to  be  independent,  to  foolish 
extremes,  and  make  themselves  absurd  by  refusing  to 
believe  any  thing,  or  by  a  strained  attempt  to  express 
their  faith  in  an  original  manner.  Now,  it  is  too  late 
for  any  of  us  to  think  of  making  any  improvement 
upon  the  great  truths  of  redemption,  or  of  getting 
credit  for  originality  with  regard  to  them.  Minds 
greater  and  far  more  competent  than  ours  to  weigh 
e^vddence,  to  detect  sophistry  and  imposture,  have  rest- 
ed every  hope  for  eternity  upon  the  truth  of  the  Bible, 
while  many  have  sealed  that  faith  in  the  flames  and 
on  the  rack  of  martyrdom.  Nor  can  we  invent  any 
objection  against  the  Bible  which  has  not  been  in- 
vented and  refuted  long  before  we  were  born.  It  is 
commendable  to  know  the  grounds  of  our  faith  ;  we 
should  inquire  as  to  the  reasonableness  of  the  evidence 
for  every  thing  which  we  believe ;  this  the  Bible  it- 
self exhorts  us  to  do,  charging  us  to  give  a  reason  to 
every  man  for  the  hope  which  is  in  us  with  meekness 
and  fear,  and  commending  certain  Christians  as  being 
more  noble  than  those  of  Thessalonica,  because  they 
searched  the  Scriptures  daily,  whether  these  things 
were  so.  There  could  hardly  be  a  stronger  approba- 
tion of  intelligent  faith  than  is  found  in  this  passage, 


140  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

in  which  it  is  not  so  much  the  faith  which  is  com- 
mended, as  the  searching  of  the  Scriptures  to  test  it. 
So  that  no  one  should  fear  that  religion  has  any  wrong 
design  upon  his  independence,  for  it  will  make  him 
more  intelligent  and  free  from  bigotry  the  more  that 
he  examines  the  Bible  to  know  the  grounds  of  his 
faith.  Moreover,  instead  of  being  jealous  with  regard 
to  the  opinions  of  others  in  their  influence  over  us, 
we  should  consider  what  a  powerful  defence  we  have 
against  the  suggestions  of  unbelief  and  the  attacks 
of  infidels,  in  the  established  convictions  of  that 
goodly  fellowship  of  believers  whose  lives  have  been 
the  best  witness  of  the  truth.  We  should  love  and 
seek  "  the  footsteps  of  the  flock,"  and  be  afraid 
to  separate  ourselves  from  the  prints  of  those  feet 
which  followed  the  good  Shepherd. 

Now,  whatever  may  be  the  subject  with  regard  to 
which  we  labor,  the  surest  source  of  relief  is  to  come 
directly  to  Christ,  and  have  our  opinions  settled  with 
regard  to  him.  The  mind  which  is  troubled  by  unbe- 
lief will  find  the  best  deliverance  by  first  accepting 
the  teachings  of  the  Bible  with  respect  to  Christ ;  or  if 
Christ  himself  be  the  object  of  doubt  and  difficulty,  he 
has  taught  us,  in  one  of  his  conversations  with  this  same 
Thomas,  that  direct  application  to  him  is  the  only 
method  of  obtaining  any  object  of  faith,  Christ  had 
told  his  disciples  that  he  was  going  to  prepare  a  place 
for  them.     "  And  whither  I  go  ye  know,  and  the  way 


THOMAS.  141 

ye  know."  They  thought  only  of  some  earthly  coun- 
try or  metropolis.  "  Thomas  saith  unto  him,  Lord, 
we  know  not  whither  thou  goest,  and  how  can  we 
know  the  way  ]  Jesus  saith  unto  him,  I  am  the  way, 
and  the  truth,  and  the  life.  No  man  cometh  unto  the 
Father  but  by  me."  Would  we  come  to  God  1  Do 
we  seek  eternal  life,  and  to  this  end  wish  to  know 
the  truth,  and  would  we  find  that  truth  ?  Christ  says, 
"  I  am  the  way."  We  must  believe  in  him,  and  ap- 
ply to  him  in  his  true  character  and  offices,  and  first 
of  all  come  as  sinners  to  this  Friend  of  sinners,  "  He 
that  hath  the  Son  hath  life."  It  is  a  mistake  to  per- 
plex our  minds  with  any  thing,  or  to  seek  relief  from 
any  thing  before  we  come  to  Christ.  Our  first  duty 
is  to  be  reconciled  to  God  as  sinners  to  their  Sov- 
ereign —  not  to  understand  mysteries  nor  resolve  the 
difficulties  of  religion ;  but  repentance  toward  God  and 
faith  toward  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  first  of  all  are  re- 
quired of  us,  and  when  we  have  complied  with  these 
requisitions,  every  thing  will  be  plain ;  no  longer  shall 
we  see  men  as  trees  walking ;  "he  that  is  spiritual 
judge th  all  things  ;  "  with  a  mind  renewed  by  the  Holy 
Spirit,  we  shall  be  led  into  all  truth.  Then  let  it  be 
your  chief  desire  to  know  Christ ;  conclude  what  to  be- 
lieve with  regard  to  him  ;  cease  to  speculate ;  aj^proach 
him  in  prayer ;  be  persuaded  that  the  Saviour's  per- 
sonal interest  in  you  at  this  moment  in  your  trying 
state  of  mind  is  expressed  in  his  words  to  Thomas : 


142  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

"  Reach  hither  thy  finger,  and  behold  my  hand,  and 
reach  hither  thy  hand,  and  thrust  it  into  my  side ;  and 
be  not  faithless,  but  believing."  The  day  will  dawn 
and  the  daystar  will  arise  in  your  heart  the  moment 
that  you  can  respond  with  Thomas,  "  My  Lord  and 
my  God." 


SERMON  VII. 


PETER  ON  THE  WAVES. 


MATTHEW  XIV.  28-31. 

AND  PETER  ANSWERED  HIM,  AND  SAID,  LORD,  IF  IT  BE  THOU,  BID  ME  COME  UNTO 
THEE  ON  THE  WATER.  AND  HE  SAID,  COME.  AND  "WHEN  PETER  WAS  COME 
DOWN  OUT  OF  THE  SHIP,  HE  WALKED  ON  THE  WATER,  TO  GO  TO  JESUS.  BUT 
WHEN  HE  SAW  THE  WIND  BOISTEROUS  HE  WAS  AFRAID  ;  AND,  BEGINNING 
TO  SINK,  HE  CRIED,  SAYING,  LORD,  SAVE  ME.  AND  IMMEDIATELY  JESUS 
STRETCHED  FORTH  HIS  HAND,  AND  CAUGHT  HIM,  AND  SAID  UNTO  HIM,  O 
THOU   OF  LITTLE  FAITH,  WHEREFORE   DIDST   THOU   DOUBT  ? 

Christ  had  gone  up  into  a  mountain  to  spend  the 
night  in  prayer.  The  disciples  whom  he  had  sent 
^before  him  to  the  other  side  of  the  lake  were  yet  in 
the  ship,  and  in  the  midst  of  a  storm.  Had  he  been 
there,  they  would  have  relied  upon  him  to  rebuke 
the  winds  and  the  sea  ;  but  their  faith  in  him  was 
not  yet  such  that  they  could  avail  themselves  of  the 
power  of  his  name  to  cast  out  a  devil  nor  to  still  a 
tempest.  These  disciples  had  just  witnessed  the  mir- 
acle of  feeding  five  thousand  with  five  loaves  and  two 
fishes.  Jesus  had  remained  behind  to  send  the  mul- 
titude away.     They  knew  it ;  and  the  remembrance 

(143) 


144  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

of  that  day's  miracle,  if  mixed  with  faith  in  the  power 
of  Christ,  would  have  made  them  feel  safe  in  the  perils 
of  the  sea.  They  had  not  yet  learned  the  omnipres- 
ence of  Christ  as  they  afterward  felt  and  preached  it. 
But  perhaps  it  was  the  case  with  them  as  it  is  with 
us  —  that  the  appearance  of  danger  overcame  the 
recollection  of  past  deliverances  ;  and  it  is  with  us 
frequently  as  it  was  with  them,  that  our  great  Inter- 
cessor is  praying  for  us  at  times  when  we  think  that 
all  is  lost,  as  his  midnight  prayers  in  that  mountain 
were  obtaining  safety  for  his  disciples  in  the  storm. 

In  the  fourth  watch  of  the  night,  or  between  the 
hours  of  three  and  six,  Jesus  came  to  them  walking  on 
the  sea.  The  vision  was  indeed  terrific.  A  human  form 
standing  erect  upon  the  sea,  and  approaching  a  ship, 
is  enough  to  make  those  in  it  suppose,  as  the  disciples 
did,  that  it  is  a  spirit,  and  to  cry  out  for  fear.  Mercy 
and  deliverance  often  come  to  us  in  ways  which  excite 
our  fears ;  we  do  not  see  that  God  is  approaching  us 
for  any  purpose  but  that  of  wrath  in  his  dark  dispen- 
sations. But  in  mercy  as  often  as  in  wrath,  "  his 
way  is  in  the  sea,  his  path  is  in  the  great  waters,  and 
his  footsteps  are  not  known." 

While  the  hearts  of  these  men  were  yet  agitated  by 
the  vision,  the  voice  of  Christ  not  having  fully  calmed 
their  fear,  and  before  time  enough  had  elapsed  to 
receive  him  into  the  ship,  one  of  their  number 
appealed  to  him  for  encouragement  to  meet  him  on 


PETER  ON  THE   WAVES.  145 

the  water.  The  ardent  and  frequently  inconsiderate, 
but  most  affectionate  and  zealous,  Peter,  bending  over 
the  vessel,  strained  his  sight  to  penetrate  the  yet  re- 
maining darkness,  and  in  the  intervals  of  the  dashing 
spray  and  waves  to  get  further  proof  that  it  was  Je- 
sus ;  but  the  storm  and  the  darkness  prevented  him 
from  having  the  evidence  of  sight. 

"  Lord,  if  it  be  thou,  bid  me  come  unto  thee  on  the 
water."  What  could  his  motives  and  feelings  be  in 
this  proposal  ?  It  is  not  likely  that  there  was  much, 
if  any,  deliberation  preceding  the  request ;  but  from 
a  sudden,  ardent  impulse,  reckless  of  danger,  and  full 
of  love  to  Christ,  with  a  seaman's  hardihood,  he 
wished  to  stand  at  his  Master's  side.  He  was  will- 
ing to  risk  his  life,  and  to  make  the  unnatural  exper- 
iment of  walking  on  the  water.  He  alone  which 
spreadeth  out  the  heavens,  and  maketh  Arcturus, 
Orion,  and  the  chambers  of  the  south,  treadeth  on 
the  waves  of  the  sea.  But  perhaps  he  did  not  act 
presumptuously ;  for  he  first  sought  permission  to 
come  to  Christ  upon  the  water.  The  act  of  the  Sa- 
viour in  walking  upon  the  waves  struck  that  passion 
in  Peter's  mind  for  daring  deeds  which  was  ever  show- 
ing itself  in  his  life.  It  was  he  who  would  make 
tabernacles,  and  dwell  on  the  mount  of  transfigura- 
tion ;  it  was  he  who  would  follow  Christ,  though  all 
should  forsake  him  ;  who  drew  his  sword  in  a  crowd 
to  cut  off  the  car  of  the  high  priest's  servant ;  and 


146  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

who,  though  outrun  on  his  way  to  the  sepulchre  by 
another  disciple,  alone  had  courage  to  go  in.  Christ 
seems  always  to  have  thought  much  respecting  Peter. 
Though  John  leaned  on  his  bosom  as  the  beloved  dis- 
ciple, Peter'  occupied  a  large  place  in  his  thoughts. 
He  prayed  for  him  in  particular,  knowing  his  consti- 
tutional tendency  and  the  temptations  which  would 
assail  him ;  he  reproved  him  faithfully  with  the  wounds 
of  a  friend ;  he  took  him  to  see  his  transfiguration, 
and  to  watch  with  him  in  Gethsemane  ;  he  looked  at 
him  when  the  cock  crew,  and  brought  him,  with  a 
look,  to  contrition ;  he  challenged  his  love  to  him 
after  he  had  risen,  and  bade  him  feed  his  lambs  and  his 
sheep ;  he  foretold  by  what  manner  of  death  he  should 
glorify  God  ;  he  made  him  the  chief  apostle  to  Israel, 
to  preach  repentance  to  them  and  the  remission  of 
sins.  Christ  knew  and  loved  his  bold,  affectionate 
heart ;  and,  indeed,  who  can  fail  to  love  him  in  the 
exhibition  which  we  have  before  us  of  his  ready  and 
loving  spirit  ] 

We  may  easily  enter  into  the  feelings  of  the  disciples 
as  they  heard  their  brother  calling  to  Christ  with  such  a 
request.  Why  risk  his  life  among  the  waves  ]  Christ 
will  come  into  the  ship.  Why  in  such  needless,  reck- 
less haste  to  reach  him  ?  These  cautious  and  proper 
feelings  had  no  effect  on  Peter.  Enterprise  and  dan- 
ger were  his  element ;  but  chiefly  his  feelings  toward 
Christ   excited    a   desire  to   be  with   him  before  he 


PETER  ON  THE  WAVES.  147 

reached  the  ship.  The  spirit  of  the  man  in  thus 
flinging  himself  into  perils  which  appall  most  men 
can  not  but  strike  us  with  admiration,  considering  the 
feelings  which  prompted  them. 

Take  this  act  of  Peter  as  an  act  of  faith.  Viewed 
in  this  light,  the  feeling  of  its  being  rash  and  pre- 
sumptuous is  not  reasonable.  Why  is  it  any  more 
presumptuous  to  walk  on  the  water  at  Christ's  bidding 
than  for  one  who  had  been  a  cripple  from  his  birth  to 
rise  and  walk  at  a  word  from  Christ  ]  If  we  have  a 
clear  warrant  for  any  thing,  it  is  not  presumption  nor 
rashness  to  undertake  it.  Peter  said.  Lord,  bid  me 
come  to  thee  on  the  water.  And  he  said,  Come. 
That  word  warranted  any  risk ;  it  was  a  ground  of 
support  in  any  exposure.  Faith  always  seems  pre- 
sumption to  an  unbeliever.  It  seems  to  a  worldling 
absurd  when  we  tell  him  that  religion  can  make  him 
happier  than  his  pleasures  ;  to  the  avaricious  man  it 
is  fanaticism  when  we  say,  "  Cast  thy  bread  upon  the 
waters,  for  thou  shalt  find  it  after  many  days."  But 
faith  never  seems  more  like  presumption  than  to  an 
anxious  sinner.  We  tell  him  that  he  is  to  be  par- 
doned and  saved  without  any  righteousness  of  his 
own  —  that  he  must  give  himself  into  the  hands  of 
God,  to  be  accepted  and  justified,  without  any  effort  to 
make  himself  acceptable  with  God,  pleading  Christ  as 
his  only  hope.  It  is  impossible,  by  argument,  to  make 
the  human  mind  feel  that  such  faith  is  any  thing  but 


148  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

presumption.  It  is  not  until  the  soul  is  forced  to  ex- 
ercise it  by  such  a  sense  of  its  lost  and  perishing  state 
as  makes  every  other  refuge  hopeless  that  the  sinner 
casts  himself,  in  a  state  of  despair,  upon  God's  mercy, 
and  of  necessity  does  that  which,  in  a  calm,  deliberate 
state  of  mind,  seemed  unwarrantable  presumption. 
If  Peter  had  said, '  Lord,  bid  me  that  I  command  this 
whole  lake  to  become  dry  land,'  and  Christ  had  said, 
'  Speak  the  word,'  would  it  have  been  presumption  to 
utter  the  command'?  Faith  must  have  a  warrant; 
but  that  warrant  is  not  necessarily  an  express  com- 
mand or  promise.  The  known  character  of  Christ 
would  have  warranted  Peter,  if  his  need  had  been  suf- 
ficient, to  descend  upon  the  waves  and  go  to  Christ 
without  an  express  invitation.  With  a  firm  confi- 
dence in  Christ,  it  would  have  been  as  impossible  for 
him  to  sink  as  for  the  cripple  at  the  Beautiful  Gate  of 
the  temple  to  sink  when  Peter,  by  faith  in  Christ, 
lifted  him  up.  It  was  the  power  of  faith  which  finally 
made  Peter  go  down  out  of  the  ship,  for  he  waited  for 
the  command  of  Christ ;  and  when  the  command  was 
given,  it  was  enough ;  he  threw  himself  into  the  sea 
to  meet  Christ. 

"  And  when  Peter  was  come  down  out  of  the  ship, 
he  walked  on  the  water  to  come  to  Jesus."  There 
he  found  himself  in  a  situation  in  which  he  never 
dreamed  that  he  could  be,  and  no  doubt  was  unable 
to  believe  his  own  senses.     The  rest  of  the  disciples 


PETER  ON  THE  WAVES,  149 

looked  on,  no  doubt,  with  a  mixture  of  astonishment 
and  disapprobation,  with  cries  of  expostulation  and 
entreaty,  and  perhaps  meditating  some  means  to  res- 
cue their  suicidal  brother.  But  onward  he  went  to 
Christ.  O,  had  he  persevered,  and  by  the  power  of 
faith  had  stood  upon  the  waves  at  his  Saviour's  side, 
and  calmly  and  triumphantly  had  returned  with  victo- 
rious faith  to  the  ship,  that  act  of  faith  would  have 
been  worthy  of  a  place  by  the  side  of  any  thing 
recorded  by  the  Apostle  in  the  eleventh  of  He- 
brews. What  an  opportunity  Peter  had  to  show  the 
power  of  faith,  walking  steadfastly  over  billows,  press- 
ing his  way  successfully  against  a  wind  that  heaved 
the  sea  from  its  foundations  !  With  what  pleasure 
should  we  have  dwelt  upon  that  incident  in  his  life  ! 
What  an  example  would  he  have  left  on  record  to 
stimulate  faith  under  difficulties  —  to  excite  a  bold  re- 
liance, in  danger,  upon  the  word  of  God  !  In  a  few 
moments  of  time,  by  once  yielding  to  fear,  Peter  lost  an 
opportunity  of  doing  good  to  the  whole  world  by  his 
example,  and  of  adding  lustre  to  his  Christian  name. 
"  But  when  he  saw  the  wind  boisterous,  he  was 
afraid,  and  beginning  to  sink,  he  cried,  saying,  Lord, 
save  me."  But  the  wind  was  his  Saviour's  servant, 
and  subject  to  faith.  What  though  it  raged  against 
him ;  did  it  not  also  at  that  moment  rage  against 
Christ?  If  Christ  could  save  him  from  sinking, 
could  he  not  as  well  save  him  while  sinking  ■?  —  as 

13* 


150  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

he  undoubtedly  would  have  done  if  Peter's  faith  had 
not  failed.  Perhaps  the  waves  and  billows  went  up 
over  his  head  ;  they  were  higher  when  he  stood 
among  them  than  when  he  stood  on  his  vessel  and 
looked  down  upon  them.  Perhaps  he  lost  sight  of 
Christ,  and  felt,  as  he  sunk  on  the  receding  wave, 
that  he  should  never  rise.  But  even  if  he  had  sunk 
beneath  the  waves,  and  had  found  himself  at  the 
bottom  of  the  deep,  faith,  had  it  not  failed  him,  would 
have  made  him  confident  that  he  should  triumph; 
and  then  what  power  would  he  have  had  in  his 
preaching  and  in  illustrating  the  meaning  and  the 
efficacy  of  faith !  This  event,  no  doubt,  had  an  im- 
portant connection  with  his  future  conduct.  It  is 
doubtful  whether  he  would  have  denied  his  Master 
if,  from  love  to  his  name  and  confidence  in  his  power, 
he  had  suffered  himself  to  sink,  trusting  still  to  the 
power  of  Christ  to  raise  him  from  the  abyss.  Could 
he  have  looked  upon  those  mountain  waves  with  an 
undaunted  heart,  he  would  perhaps,  in  some  of  the 
last  terrible  scenes  of  Christ's  life,  have  been  undis- 
mayed at  the  tumult  of  the  people.  Had  he  been 
able  to  breast  that  boisterous  wind,  standing  still  if 
he  could  not  advance,  or  sufiering  it  to  bloAv  him 
down  or  backward  if  he  could  not  stand,  still  be- 
lieving and  holding  on  to  that  word  of  Christ,  Coitie, 
he  might  have  been  willing  to  face  the  enemies  of 
Christ,  and  to  have  been  dragged  to  Pilate's  bar  with 


PETER  ON  THE  WAVES.  151 

his  Saviour  ;  nor  would  that  little  maid  have  pro- 
voked him  t^  curse  and  swear,  denying  that  he  knew 
Christ.  Our  Christian  principles  are  strengthened 
only  by  being  exercised ;  and  if  the  boisterous  wind 
and  the  swelling  billows  had  brought  Peter's  faith 
into  full  exercise,  no  one  can  tell  w^hat  influence  it 
might  have  had  upon  his  character  and  conduct,  and 
upon  the  world  by  his  example  and  through  its  private 
effect  on  his  character. 

We  are  not  to  suppose  that  this  scene  was  purely 
accidental  —  that  it  had  no  design.  It  is  full  of  in- 
struction ;  it  presents  to  our  view  Christ  as  a  Friend 
in  danger  and  tribulation,  yet  not  for  the  mere  purpose, 
of  support  and  comfort  in  tribulation.  A  far  better 
object  than  support  and  consolation  the  Saviour  seeks 
to  effect  by  bidding  us  come  to  him  in  darkness  and 
in  great  trials.  He  can  do  us  no  greater  benefit  than 
to  increase  our  faith.  If  he  will  place  us  in  the  most 
trying  scenes,  under  the  most  bitter  afflictions,  and 
carry  us  through  them  with  no  murmur  upon  our  lips, 
no  repining  in  our  hearts,  —  if,  while  a  starless  night 
is  around  us,  a  heaving  sea  beneath  our  feet,  and  we 
are  ready  to  sink  under  the  weight  of  his  waterspouts, 
he  will  fill  us  with  greater  love  to  him,  unfailing  con- 
fidence in  him,  and  make  us  say  that  there  is  none 
upon  earth  that  we  desire  beside  him,  —  he  will  do  us 
the  greatest  favor  ;  he  will  bestow  the  greatest  en- 
dowment of  spiritual  strength  upon  us ;   he  will  lay 


152  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

the  foundation  of  the  greatest  happiness  here,  and  of 
praise,  and  honor,  and  glory  at  his  appearing.  One 
great  end  of  all  the  dealings  of  God  with  us  is  to  pro- 
mote faith.  Nothing  honors  God,  nothing  promotes 
true  religion  in  us,  like  faith.  Hence  the  dark  and 
trying  dispensations  of  Providence  are,  no  doubt,  in- 
tended for  this  purpose,  and  the  darkness  in  them  is 
the  chosen  means  of  producing  the  faith ;  for,  could 
we  see  the  reasons  and  the  object,  there  would  be 
small  room  for  faith  in  our  trials.  Perhaps  Christ 
never  had  a  greater  design  of  love  and  friendship  with 
regard  to  Peter  than  when  he  gave  him  that  wonder- 
ful opportunity  to  show  his  faith.  Therefore,  in  con- 
templating Christ  as  a  Friend,  let  us  not  think  of  him 
merely  as  wiping  our  tears ;  let  us  believe  that  when 
he  comes  in  clouds,  and  places  us  among  billows,  and 
rolls  the  very  seas  over  our  heads,  he  is  seeking  to  do 
for  us  the  greatest  and  best  thing ;  and  that  is,  to 
increase  our  faith.  He  destroys  our  hopes,  he  covers 
our  faces  with  sackcloth,  he  ploughs  upon  our  backs 
and  makes  long  his  furrows,  he  builds  against  us,  and 
encloses  our  way  with  hewn  stone,  till  human  strength 
seems  ready  to  sink.  If  at  such  times  we  stay  our- 
selves upon  his  promise,  love  him  still,  justify  him, 
make  him  our  all  in  all,  the  result  will  prove  that 
never,  except  as  a  sacrifice  for  our  sins,  did  he  have 
greater  love  to  us,  nor  was  he  ever  more  our  Friend. 
Perhaps  we  are  disposed  to  say,  '  Had  I  been  Peter, 


PETER  ON  THE  WAVES.  153 

I  would  have  endured  that  trial  of  faith  better  than 
he.  Christ  bidding  me  come,  the  wind  and  the  waves 
should  have  forced  me  down  to  the  very  bars  of  death ; 
nor  would  I  have  lost  that  opportunity  to  gain  a 
triumph  of  faith.' 

And  what  has  been  your  conduct,  courageous  soul, 
under  circumstances  sent  upon  you  for  the  very  same 
purpose  with  that  for  which  Christ  came  to  that  ves- 
sel in  which  he  had  "  constrained  his  disciples "  to 
embark,  and  in  trials  of  faith  ordered  for  the  same 
wise  purpose  for  which  Christ  bade  Peter  to  come  to 
him  on  the  sea  1  You  have  been  sick,  it  may  be,  at 
a  time  most  inconvenient  and  trying,  and  subjected 
thereby  to  great  disadvantage ;  death  may  have  spoiled 
you  of  precious  treasures ;  a  reverse  of  fortune  may 
have  befallen  you ;  great  injustice,  provocations,  vio- 
lent appetites  or  passions  may  have  assailed  you  ;  dark 
hours  of  depression  and  melancholy,  disappointments 
that  imbittered  life,  may  have  been  your  portion. 
Amid  these  clouds  and  storms,  these  winds  and  waves, 
the  voice  of  Christ  has  nevertheless  spoken  to  your 
heart  by  his  Word  and  Spirit,  saying,  Come.  How 
have  you  trod  the  unquiet  sea  ^  Out  of  the  depths 
how  have  you  cried  unto  God  1  As  wave  after  wave 
has  threatened  to  destroy  you,  have  you  been  able  to 
say,  with  David,  "  Deep  calleth  unto  deep  at  the  noise 
of  thy  waterspouts  ;  all  thy  waves  and  thy  billows 
have  gone  over  me ;  yet  the  Lord  will  command  his 


154:  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

loving  kindness  in  the  daytime,  and  in  the  night  his 
song  shall  be  with  me  "  1  One  of  the  greatest  achieve- 
ments in  the  world  is,  to  behave  well  in  trouble. 
Nothing  honors  God  more  than  firm  confidence  in 
him  in  times  of  adversity.  This  is  that  trial  of  faith 
much  more  precious  than  of  gold  that  perisheth,  which 
will  be  found  unto  praise,  and  honor,  and  glory  at  the 
appearing  of  Jesus  Christ.  We  seldom  know  when 
we  are  going  into  circumstances  which  will  call  for  a 
peculiar  exercise  of  faith.  Peter  began  to  sink  before 
he  expected  it.  Temptations  spring  upon  us  out  of 
ambush ;  hidden  occurrences  find  us  off  our  guard ; 
or  the  circumstances  of  our  trials  are  so  directly  from 
the  agency  of  others  that  we  frequently  do  not  think 
of  God  in  them.  Yet  Christ  is  using  them  for  our 
spiritual  benefit,  and  we  should  think  of  him,  more 
than  of  them.  Peter  had  his  eye  on  the  billows,  and 
not  on  Christ ;  he  could  not  believe  that  his  Saviour 
rolled  those  billows  against  him  —  the  Saviour  who 
had  said  to  him,  '  Come.'  He  felt  that  Christ  could 
not  have  known  what  mighty  billows  they  were,  or  he 
never  would  have  encouraged  him  to  walk  amongst 
them.  So  with  us  in  heavy  trials.  It  seems  to  us 
that  God  has  forgotten  to  be  gracious  —  that  in  anger 
he  has  shut  up  his  tender  mercies.  We  can  point  to 
certain  aggravations  in  our  trials  which  are  uncom- 
mon and  peculiar,  as  though  God  had  not  ordained 
every  one  of  them,  and  had  not  a  special  design  in 


PETER  OX   THE    WAVES.  155 

each  feature  of  our  trouble,  and  in  mixing  each  and 
every  ingredient  in  our  cup.  When  the  trouble  has 
passed  by,  we  can  see  how  we  should  have  felt  and 
acted  while  it  continued ;  but,  like  Peter,  we  have 
lost  an  opportunity  of  strengthening  many  a  Chris- 
tian principle.  It  is  wise  to  look  upon  every  thing 
which  happens  to  us  here  as  a  part  of  God's  plan 
with  us,  having  a  design.  Instead  of  this,  we  are 
prone  to  live  as  though  this  were  a  world  of  chance 
and  accidents,  afflictions  springing  out  of  the  dust, 
and  God  without  any  plan  or  purpose  in  the  daily 
events  of  our  life.  But  consider  that  this  short  life 
is  with  each  of  us  a  probationary  state  with  reference 
to  endless  existence.  Every  event,  then,  must  be  of 
importance,  and  therefore  is  a  part  of  God's  purposes 
concerning  us ;  for  these  events  are  forming  our  char- 
acters for  eternity ;  and  can  it  be  of  slight  importance, 
then,  what  happens  to  us  day  by  day "?  When  a  great 
sculptor  is  making  a  face  which  is  to  go  down  to  pos- 
terity, every  stroke  has  a  meaning ;  nothing  is  acci- 
dental ;  all  tends  to  one  great  end.  So  God  is  form- 
ing you  for  immortality.  Every  event  of  every  day  is 
intended  for  some  effect  upon  your  immortal  character 
and  condition.  If  we  could  only  keep  this  in  view, 
and  remember  that  discipline  is  the  great  end  and 
object  of  this  life,  our  trials  and  troubles  would  be  en- 
dured with  more  patience ;  we  should  be  still  "  educing 
good  "  out  of  every  "  seeming  evil ; "  we  should  glory 


156  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

in  tribulations.  The  disciples,  safe  in  their  ship,  as 
they  looked  on  Peter,  perhaps  thought  that,  had  they 
begun  like  him  to  walk  on  the  water  to  Christ,  they 
would  have  been  consistent,  and  would  have  carried 
out  their  purpose.  So  we  think,  when  we  look  upon 
the  troubles  of  others  ;  we  know  how  to  advise  them ; 
we  know  how  they  ought  to  feel ;  we  repeat  the  prom- 
ises to  them  ;  we  see  what  opportunities  they  have  to 
glorify  God  in  the  day  of  their  visitation  and  make 
valuable  improvement  of  their  afflictions ;  and  if  we 
would  be  as  skillful  in  our  trials  as  we  are  in  directing 
them,  we  should  all  of  us  profit  more  under  the  rod 
of  the  Almighty.  The  example  of  Peter  illustrates 
the  opportunity  which  troubles  afford  us  of  receiving 
and  doing  great  good.  The  hand  of  a  friend  is  in 
them.  Christ  is  among  the  billows,  thinking  more 
of  us  and  of  our  conduct  than  we  do  of  those  winds 
which  we  forget  are  held  in  his  fist,  and  of  those 
waters  which  are  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand.  By 
them  he  is  affording  us  occasions  for  great  spiritual 
heroism,  and  of  usefulness  and  divine  approbation. 
Christ,  in  saving  Peter,  added  a  gentle  rebuke  — 
O  thou  of  little  faith,  wherefore  didst  thou  doubt  I " 
He  seems  to  say  to  him,  '  Had  you  but  persevered  a 
littlei,  you  would  have  triumphed.'  Christ  did  not 
sympathize  with  him  at  the  violence  of  the  wind,  nor 
excuse  him  on  account  of  the  swelling  waves.  He 
tells  him  that  he  was  of  little  faith,  implying  that  a 


PETER  ON  THE  WAVES.  157 

greater  degree  of  faith  would  have  been  a  match  for 
all  the  perils  of  the  sea. 

What  would  Peter  now  give,  had  he  known,  the 
night  when  he  was  going  down  out  of  that  boat  to 
walk  on  the  water,  that  the  history  of  that  act  was  to 
be  written  in  God's  book,  to  be  translated  into  every 
tongue,  and  to  make  a  distinct  and  forcible  impression 
upon  every  soul  of  Adam's  race  who  should  read  it? 
How  would  he  have  acted  had  he  known  that  his  de- 
nial of  Christ  was  to  be  written  with  the  point  of  a 
diamond  in  the  hearts  of  men,  and  graven  in  their 
memories  for  eternity  ?  What  would  he  not  give  if 
he  could  now  pass  through  those  several  scenes  again  1 
We  may  ask  the  same  question  respecting  Adam,  and 
Moses,  and  David,  and  Solomon.  As  a  contrast  to 
these,  what  must  be  the  feelings  of  Abraham  as  he 
thinks  of  his  faith  in  offering  Isaac,  and  of  the  in- 
fluence of  his  example  upon  the  world!  Who  can 
express  the  gladness  of  the  virtuous  Joseph,  of  the 
patient,  suffering  Jeremiah,  of  the  widow  that  cast 
her  two  mites  into  the  treasury  of  God,  of  the  woman 
that  was  a  sinner  making  bold  to  anoint  her  Saviour's 
feet,  and  of  the  constancy  and  love  of  that  beloved 
disciple,  John  ?  Can  you  express,  can  all  heaven  tell, 
can  eternity  measure  the  joy  of  their  hearts  that  they 
had  temptations  and  tribulations ;  that  God  counted 
them  worthy  to  be  thus  tried ;  and  that  they  were  en- 
abled here  on  earth  to  do  as  they  did,  and  lay  up 

14 


158  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

such  themes  for  everlasting  joy  as  their  conduct  here 
supplies  ? 

And  do  you  know,  immortal  man,  that  you  are  now 
occupying  the  place  in  this  world  in  which  those  men 
once  stood  ;  that  you  are  doing  things  which  are 
going  upon  a  record  perhaps  to  be  concealed  from  the 
world  for  the  present,  but,  however  that  may  be,  to 
be  disclosed  hereafter ;  to  be  known  by  countless 
spirits,  and  more  than  all  this,  to  be  perpetually  sub- 
jects of  your  meditation  ]  You  are  glad  that  you  are 
not  Peter  to  remember  that  you  denied  Christ,  or  that 
you  failed  of  an  act  of  faith  which  would  have  made 
you  eminently  useful  and  happy  forever.  But  you 
may  be  a  Peter  in  the  weakness  of  your  faith,  if  in  no 
other  respect.  You  are  surrounded,  perhaps,  to-day 
with  opportunities  whose  result  may  be,  in  like  man- 
ner, important  to  you  as  those  instances  of  trial  were 
to  him.  You  would  be  glad  to  have  Abraham's  con- 
sciousness, and  Stephen's  joy,  and  Paul's  crown. 
Who  knows  but  you  may  1  Who  can  tell  that  you 
are  not  now  situated  so  that,  by  faith  proportioned  to 
your  circumstances,  you  may  please  God  like  them"? 
Are  you  in  trouble  ■?  The  prophets,  apostles,  and 
martyrs  did  not  know  in  their  troubles  what  the  in- 
fluence of  them  would  be,  and,  at  the  time,  they  saw 
as  little  of  God's  design  in  their  sufferings  as  you  do 
in  your  present  trials  ;  but  they  endured,  and  now  in- 
herit the  promises. 


PETER  ON  THE   WAVES.  159 

To  look  at  the  subject  in  another  view :  Perhaps 
you  are  now  under  special  religious  impressions. 
God  may  have  come  very  near  to  you  by  his  Spirit ; 
and  you  may  now  have  special  opportunities  of  ex- 
ercising faith  —  opportunities  which  may  have  as  last- 
ing an  influence  on  your  character  and  happiness  as 
that  which  you  read  of  in  the  Bible  had  upon  ancient 
saints.  .  For  example  :  It  may  be  that  the  question  is 
now  distinctly  set  before  your  mind,  whether  you  will 
begin  to  live  for  God  ;  you  have  an  opportunity  at  the 
present  time  to  take  a  decided  step  in  favor  of  religion ; 
the  world  and  the  flesh  dissuade  you ;  conscience,  your 
hopes,  your  fears,  and  the  Spirit  of  God  constrain 
you  ;  it  may  be  that  you  will  see  through  eternity  that 
this  present  time  had  as  great  an  influence  upon  your 
character  and  history,  and  upon  your  feelings,  and 
upon  your  influence  forever,  as  critical  seasons  in  the 
lives  of  men  recorded  in  the  Bible  now  appear  to  have 
had  on  them.  The  command  may  now  be  laid  before 
you  to  make  a  sacrifice  of  your  feelings  or  of  your 
sins,  which  sacrifice  will  cost  you  as  much  as  it  did 
Abraham  to  ofler  up  Isaac.  Perhaps  you  are  in  some 
such  circumstances  as  Lot  was  when  God  called  him 
and  his  family  to  flee  from  Sodom  ;  and  your  history 
may  correspond  with  that  of  Lot,  or  of  her  who  looked 
back  and  became  a  pillar  of  salt.  How  little  she 
thought  that  her  look  backward  would  be  mentioned 
here  to-day,  and  be  known  throughout  the  wide  world  ! 


160  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

But  in  the  histories  of  eternity  we  may  read  your  name 
associated  with  precisely  such  conduct.     Perhaps  you 
are  now  like  Zaccheus,  when  he  climbed  the  tree  to 
see  Christ ;    like  him  who,  for  the  pieces  of  silver, 
betrayed  his  Lord.     You  can  not  tell  of  what  infinite 
importance  your  present  circumstances  may  prove  to 
have  been.     So  common  a  thing  as  listening  to  a  ser- 
mon, and  the  feelings  and  conduct  Avhich  ensue  from 
it,  may,  in  connection  with  previous  probation,  be  the 
appointed  event  of  trial  in  which  you  may  give  char- 
acter to  your  whole  being,  and  that  hour  be  the  time 
which  will  always  be  prominent  in  your  thoughts. 
Suppose,  for  example,  that  some  young  man  here  to- 
day should  be  prevailed  upon  to  be  a  Christian,  and 
should,  in  consequence,  be  a  herald  of  the  cross,  and 
turn  many  to  righteousness;  would  not  the  history 
of  this  hour  ever  be  to  him  and  to  others  as  interest- 
ing as  the  history  of  the  jailer's  conversion,  or  even 
as  that  of  Saul  of  Tarsus,  was  to  him  ?     Events  like 
that  supposed  have  frequently  occurred,  and  you  may 
now  be  under  influences  which  will  become  to  you 
the  sources  of  endless  though tfulness,  of  joy  or  pain. 
Perhaps  some  of  you,  who  have  passed  the  season 
of  youth,  may  at  the  present  time  be  in  that  period 
of  your  spiritual  history  on  which  your  memories  will 
be  fixed  millions  of  ages  from  this  day,  as  the  all-im- 
portant season  of  your  being.     When  a  man  reduces 
a  large  map  to  a  miniature  map  of  a  few  inches,  every 


PETER  ON  THE  WAVES.  161 

line,  every  word,  every  dot  which  he  makes  in  that 
small  engraving  is  the  subject  of  great  deliberation. 
When  God  makes  a  few  inches  of  time  a  probation 
for  eternity,  every  call  of  conscience  and  of  the  Spirit, 
every  Sabbath,  every  appeal  from  the  pulpit,  every 
opportunity  to  repent  and  believe  the  gospel,  —  must 
it  not  be  of  vast  importance  ?  I  am  preaching  to  you 
from  a  text  and  upon  a  subject  which  comport  well 
with  this  very  dark  day.*  The  sun  is  far  above  the 
horizon,  but  these  lights  by  the  pulpit  alone  disclose 
your  faces  to  me.  It  may  be  that  one  of  you  was  sent 
here  that  in  this  storm  and  darkness  which  are  adding 
force  to  the  text  and  subject,  you  might  hear  the  voice 
of  Christ  addressed  to  your  faith,  saying,  "Come." 
This  Sabbath  may  be  of  more  consequence  to  you, 
the  feelings  and  the  decisions  of  to-day  may  be  more 
important,  than  the  ages  of  eternity  will  fully 
unfold. 

When  we  are  specially  interested  about  our  souls, 
and  the  duty  which  lies  plainly  before  us  is  to  go  to 
Christ,  and  we  know  that  we  can  not  save  ourselves ; 
that  our  righteousness  is  only  our  condemnation,  that 
Christ  died  in  our  stead,  that  faith  in  him  will  be 
imputed  to  us  for  righteousness,  and  that  we  have 
nothing  to  do,  and  can  do  nothing  but  go  to  the  Sa- 
viour and  give  our  perishing  souls  into  his  hands ;  we 
may  well  consider  that  Peter's  trial  is  repeated  in  us. 

*  November  13,  1853. 


162  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

And  in  what  respects  1  Because  we  are  full  of  doubts 
and  fears ;  we  feel  guilty ;  we  are  afraid  of  such  a 
risk  as  renouncing  our  present  hold  on  our  own  ef- 
forts, and  venturing  on  Christ.  We  crave  some  as- 
surance beforehand  that  Christ  has  accepted  us  before 
we  go  to  him ;  we  shrink  from  casting  ourselves  at 
his  feet,  lest  the  despairing  state  of  mind  in  which  we 
do  it  will  not  be  followed  by  peace  and  hope.  In  a 
word,  we  seek  to  have  hope  before  we  exercise  faith. 
We  see  that  we  must  believe,  trust,  venture,  despair, 
before  we  can  truly  submit  ourselves  to  Christ,  and  so, 
like  Peter  in  the  ship,  we  strain  our  sight  in  the  dark- 
ness and  storm  which  is  about  us,  and  say,  "  Lord,  if 
it  be  thou,  bid  me  come  to  thee  on  the  water."  The 
Saviour  says,  "Come."  What  will  you  dol  Your 
conduct  now,  more  than  that  of  Peter,  involves  the 
salvation  of  the  soul.  Yet  his  situation  is  a  light  to 
guide  you.  Will  you  go  down  upon  the  waves  and 
go  to  Jesus,  throw  yourself  in  faith,  —  which  you  may 
call  presumption,  for  it  will  seem  to  you  presumption, 
—  throw  yourself  in  faith  upon  this  dark  and  stormy 
water,  and  say,  "  If  I  perish,  I  perish  "  ]  The  very 
thing  which  Peter  failed  to  do,  you  may  perform.  Say, 
'  Lord,  I  will  come.  All  thy  waves  and  thy  billows  go 
over  me.  But  to  whom  shall  I  go '?  Perish  I  must, 
without  Christ ;  and  if  I  perish,  I  will  perish  going 
to  Christ.'  Thus  you  will  trust  in  his  sufferings  and 
death,  pleading  his  blood  for  your  pardon,  and  renoun- 


TETER  ON  THE  WAVES.  163 

cing  all  dependence  and  hopes,  but  that  Christ  died 
for  you.  Go,  then,  trembling  soul ;  the  Saviour  stands 
upon  the  dark  billows  and  bids  you  come.  He  says 
to  you  beforehand,  "  O  thou  of  little  faith,  wherefore 
dost  thou  doubt  1 "  We  the  disciples  are  looking 
upon  you  from  the  ship  ;  witnesses  from  heaven  may 
be  watching  the  result ;  the  tempter  will  frustrate 
your  rising  purpose  if  he  can  ;  but  now  is  your  time ; 
you  may  not  have  another.  "Believe,  and  thou  shalt 
be  saved." 


Happily,  these  Scripture  characters  impress  different  minds  in  dif- 
ferent ways,  and  suggest  varied  instruction.  I  take  pleasure  in  giving 
the  following  truthful,  as  well  as  beautiful,  piece  from  "  Songs  of 
Christian  Chivalry.     London,  1848.'" 

Fear  to  ask,  "  If  it  be  thou. 

Bid  me  come  to  thee," 
Though  thou  think'st  at  Jesus'  word 

Thou  could'st  walk  the  sea. 
Haste  is  mingling  with  such  faith, 

And  betrays  it  weak. 
Rather  be  it  thine  to  wait 

Till  thy  Lord  shall  speak. 

He,  or  e'er  thy  thought  be  said. 

Well  thy  glowing  heart  hath  read. 
If  he  bid  thee  walk  the  wave. 

Be  thou  sure  that  he  will  save. 
But,  thy  frailty  all  forgot, 

Such  commandment  tempt  thou  not. 
Lest  thou  learn  in  shame,  at  length, 

Conscious  weakness  is  our  strength. 


164  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

Hast  thou  faith  and  could'st  thou  joy 

Perils  to  abide? 
Yet  bethink  thee  how  a  saint 

His  dear  Lord  denied  ! 
•'  Yea,  though  all  offended  be, 

I  will  not,"  he  said  ; 
But  for  those  presumptuous  words 

Bitter  tears  were  shed  ! 

Taught  from  thence  with  lowly  mind 

Keep  the  place  his  love  assigned  ; 
Answering  but,  "  Thy  will  be  done," 

At  his  bidding  thou  shalt  run. 
Gathering  strength  in  self-control, 

Patiently  possess  thy  soul. 
Storing  up  each  earnest  thought 

For  a  time  with  trial  fraught. 


SERMON  VIII. 


NATHANAEL. 


JOHN  I.  47. 

JESUS     SAW    NATHANAEL     COMING     TO     HIM,    AND    SAITH     OP     HIM,    BEHOLD     AN 
ISRAELITE    INDEED,    IN    "WHOM    IS    NO    GUILE. 

Our  Saviour  and  Friend  can  appreciate  something 
besides  our  guilt  and  misery  ;  he  rejoices  in  the  moral 
and  Christian  excellence  of  his  followers.  The  re- 
proachful name  of  publicans  and  sinners  did  not 
attach  to  all  whom  he  loved ;  though  all  who  truly 
lov€d  him  loved  him  the  more  for  seeking  and  saving 
that  which  was  lost.  Doubtless  there  were  more  than 
are  recorded  who  excited  pleasure  in  him  through  ap- 
probation of  their  characters.  John  the  Baptist,  Na- 
thanael,  and  the  beloved  disciple,  Martha,  and  her 
sister,  and  Lazarus,  show  that  he  was  not  merely  a 
philanthropist,  nor  an  official  Redeemer ;  that  he 
appreciated  goodness,  and  loved  it  in  those  who, 
while  they  needed  as  much  as  others  to  be  justified 
by  his  grace,  commended  themselves  to  his  affections 

(165) 


166  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

by  their  excellent  qualities,  and  by  that  means  made 
him  their  personal  friend. 

What  could  remain  to  be  desired  by  one  of  whom 
Jesus  Christ  should  say,  "  Behold  an  Israelite  indeed, 
in  whom  is  no  guile  "  ] 

We  may  suppose  that  Christ  in  these  words  ex- 
pressed the  idea  of  great  moral  excellence.  Though 
completeness  of  character  would  require  other  things 
besides  that  which  is  here  ascribed  to  Nathanael,  and 
which  he  may  have  possessed,  yet  the  characteristic 
here  mentioned  is,  perhaps  more  than  any  thing  else, 
the  basis  of  moral  character,  and  is  essential  to  the 
approbation  and  love  of  Christ. 

Truth  may  be  said  to  be  the  foundation  of  the 
moral  universe ;  for  without  it  there  can  be  no  correct 
knowledge  of  God,  no  just  conceptions  of  our  duty 
and  of  right  and  wrong,  no  confidence  between  man 
and  his  Maker,  nor  among  men.  As  regularity*  is 
essential  in  the  movements  of  those  heavenly  bodies 
whose  orbits  intersect,  so  truth  is  indispensable  in  the 
relations  of  moral  beings.  God  must  insist  on  truth 
as  of  the  first  importance  ;  all  his  communications  to 
us  will  enforce  it ;  all  that  we  know  of  his  character 
and  acts  will  show  his  love  of  it,  and  his  abhorrence 
of  falsehood  and  deceit.  If  among  men  falsehood,  so 
far  as  it  prevails,  makes  intercourse  impossible  by 
deranging  affairs,  —  if  to  forge  a  name,  to  transmit 


NATHANAEL.  167 

false  information,  to  deceive  in  selling,  are  crimes 
which  excite  feelings  like  the  instinctive  impulses  of 
self-defence  against  personal  violence,  —  much  more 
disastrous  must  falsehood  be  in  things  affecting  our 
moral  and  spiritual  concerns. 

Guile  is  the  great  characteristic  of  the  evil  which  is 
in  us.  This  is  impressively  taught  in  that  passage 
where  the  inspired  writer  characterizes  the  human 
heart  by  saying,  "  The  heart  is  deceitful  above  all 
things."  David  teaches  this  when  he  tells  us  that  the 
man  "  to  whom  the  Lord  imputeth  not  iniquity,"  is 
the  same  as  he  "in  whose  spirit  there  is  no  guile."  In 
that  psalm  of  penitence  wrung  from  David  by  his 
disastrous  fall  and  his  recovery  by  God's  free  Spirit, 
written  at  a  time  when  his  experience  led  him  to 
appreciate  fully  the  nature  of  goodness,  he  says, 
"  Behold,  thou  desirest  truth  in  the  inward  parts." 
These  few  words,  uttered  at  such  a  moment  from  the 
inmost  depths  of  a  soul  where  God  had  made  his  own 
character  and  will  to  be  felt  in  no  ordinary  degree, 
show  us  the  infinite  value  which  the  heart-searching: 
God  places  upon  truth.  David,  the  king,  proposed  to 
teach  the  young,  whom  he  loved  greatly,  (and  Solo- 
mon, also,  in  this  way  showed  true  wisdom,)  one 
great  secret  of  piety  and  happiness :  "  Come,  ye  chil- 
dren, hearken  unto  me.  I  will  teach  you  the  fear 
of  the  Lord.  What  man  is  he  that  desireth  life,  and 
loveth  many  days,  that  he  may  see  good '?     Keep  thy 


168  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

tongue  from  evil,  and  thy  lips  from  speaking  guile," 
Peter  repeats  the  same  thing  in  almost  the  same 
words :  "  For  he  that  will  love  life  and  see  good  days, 
let  him  refrain  his  tongue  from  evil,  and  his  lips  that 
they  speak  no  guile."  John  mentions  this  as  a  char- 
acteristic of  the  "  hundred  and  forty  and  four  thou- 
sand :  "  "  And  in  their  mouth  was  found  no  guile  ;  for 
they  are  without  fault  before  the  throne  of  God."  A 
name  given  by  the  Saviour  to  the  Holy  Spirit  is,  "  the 
Spirit  of  Truth."  It  completes  all  which  we  need  to 
say  on  this  point  when  we  remember  that  the  charac- 
ter of  the  spotless  Lamb  of  God  is  thus  expressed : 
"  who  did  no  sin,  neither  was  guile  found  in  his 
mouth." 

There  are  no  limits  to  the  pervading  nature  of 
guile  in  human  character  where  it  has  power ;  it  goes 
hito  all  our  feelings;  it  destroys  that  self-respect  which 
makes  us  free  and  happy  with  others ;  we  are  embar- 
rassed by  it  in  our  intercourse  with  God.  Sincerity 
makes  us  transparent  in  our  feelings.  Truthfulness, 
like  vitalizing  blood,  affects  the  unconscious  com- 
plexion of  a  man's  acts,  his  unstudied,  spontaneous 
feelings,  his  impulses,  as  well  as  his  principles.  A 
man  in  whom  is  no  guile  is  not  necessarily  so  plain  as 
to  be  discourteous,  nor  need  he  be  blunt,  nor  abrupt, 
nor  reserved  ;  he  will  be  honest,  he  will  be  faithful, 
he  will  naturally  be  free  from  jealousy  and  suspicion, 
charitable  in  his  feelings  and  judgment,  simple  in  his 


NATHANAEL.  ]  69 

manners  ;  and  no  man  will  be  more  likely  than  he  to 
be  pure  in  heart. 

Truthfulness  in  a  young  child  —  of  which  w^e  not 
unfrequently  have  beautiful  examples  —  illustrates  its 
nature  and  influence  in  a  happy  manner.  In  a  num- 
ber of  children,  if  there  be  one  from  whom  you  are 
sure  of  receiving  a  true  statement,  even  when  it  in- 
volves himself,  he  lays  for  himself  in  your  mind  a 
lasting  foundation  for  respect  and  confidence.  His 
simple,  ingenuous  narrative  moves  you  to  tears  by  its 
mere  artless  truthfulness  ;  you  remember  it  as  often 
as  you  think  of  him  all  your  life  long,  and  nothing  is 
a  surer  passport  to  esteem  and  trust.  However  far  a 
child  may,  through  thoughtlessness  or  the  strength  of 
passion,  go  astray,  if  he  is  truthful,  there  is  hope  of 
him ;  if  he  is  deceitful  and  slippery,  there  is  no  foun- 
dation on  which  to  build  a  good  character.  By  judi- 
cious, never-ceasing  efforts,  deceitfulness  may  be  cured ; 
and  it  must  be  cured,  or  the  result  will  be  at  least  a 
worthless  character,  and  not  only  injury  to  the  indi- 
vidual, but  no  one  can  tell  how  extensively  to  the 
world. 

Our  general  approbation  and  love  of  truthfulness 
is  seen  in  this  —  that  when  our  wishes  do  not  make 
us  willing  to  be  deceived,  we  respect  and  love  one 
whose  mind  takes  and  transmits  just  and  true  impres- 
sions ;  who  does  not  color,  nor  exaggerate,  nor  con- 
ceal, nor  embellish  the  truth.     There  is  a  feeling  of 


170  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

protection  and  safety  when  -vve  repose  upon  the  state- 
ments of  such  persons,  who,  amidst  temptations  to 
please,  or  flatter,  or  soothe,  or  blind  us,  from  motives 
deemed  justifiable,  impress  us  with  their  truthfulness, 
foregoing  the  momentary  pleasure  of  exciting  wonder 
or  gratifying  the  known  wishes  of  the  listener,  and 
seeming  to  love  truth  for  its  own  sake.  It  is  a  good 
sign  if  the  heartless  forms  of  mere  ceremonious  inter- 
course in  society,  its  apologies,  its  expressions  of  glad- 
ness or  sorrow,  the  numerous  things  which  are  said  as 
matters  of  course,  are  distasteful  to  us.  It  also  shows 
a  deep  feeling  of  truthfulness  to  withhold  expressions 
of  wonder  and  surprise  when  nothing  of  the  kind  is 
felt ;  for  these  are  a  form  of  deceit  in  which  it  is  true 
no  harm  is  intended,  but,  on  the  contrary,  they  have 
the  appearance  of  being  benevolent;  yet,  proceeding 
really  from  a  want  of  moral  courage,  they  hurt  the 
moral  sense,  and  secretly  prevent  others  from  respect- 
ing and  confiding  in  us  as  truthful. 

It  is  well  said  that  "  there  are  intellectual  requisites 
for  truth  which  are  as  much  caused  by  truth  as  causing 
it.  Much  of  exaggeration  is  owing  to  an  impatient 
and  easily- moved  temperament,  which  longs  to  convey 
its  own  vivid  impressions  to  other  minds,  and  seeks 
by  amplifying,  to  gain  the  full  measure  of  their  sym- 
pathy. Btit  a  true  man  does  not  think  what  his 
hearers  are  feeling,  but  what  he  is  saying." 

Guile  is  seen  in  "  making  speech  vary  according  to 


NATHANAEL.  171 

the  person  spoken  to  ;  "  in  "  pretending  to  agree  with 
the  world  when  we  do  not ;  "  in  "  not  acting  agreea- 
bly to  our  deliberate  and  well-advised  opinion,  because 
some  mischief  may  be  made  of  it  by  those  whose 
judgment  in  the  case  we  do  not  respect ;  "  in  "  main- 
taining a  wrong  course  for  the  sake  of  consistency  ;  " 
in  "  encouraging  the  show  of  intimacy  with  those 
with  whom  we  never  can  be  intimate.  These  prac- 
tices have  elements  of  charity  and  prudence,  as  well 
as  fear  and  meanness,  in  them.  Let  those  parts  which 
correspond  to  fear  and  meanness  be  put  aside.  Herein 
lies  one  of  the  great  trials  of  a  man  —  that  his  sin- 
cerity should  have  kindness  in  it,  and  his  kindness 
truth."  One  who  has  an  exaggerated  manner  of 
speaking  in  common  things  can  not  be  without  guile 
in  things  of  more  importance.  One  who  is  not  strict- 
ly observant  with  regard  to  promises,  and  to  all  the 
lesser  engagements  which  he  makes  in  ordinary  affairs, 
will  not  be  free  from  this  deadly  evil.  We  must  watch 
ourselves  in  these  and  such  like  things  if  we  would 
be  Israelites  indeed. 

Nathanael,  in  being  without  guile,  Avas  not  for  that 
reason  a  soft,  effeminate  character ;  for  the  first  thing 
which  is  said  of  him  shows  that  he  was  not  a  credu- 
lous man.  His  ready  answer  to  the  surprising  and 
awakening  information  that  the  Messiah  had  come 
was,  "  Can  any  good  thing  come  out  of  Nazareth  ? " 
Neither  had  he  any  obstinate  prejudice,  for  the  simple 


172  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

good  sense  of  Philip  satisfied  him.  Christ  knew  what 
Nathanael  had  said,  for  he  knew  all  things  ;  yet  he 
did  not  upbraid  him  with  it,  but  met  him  with  an  un- 
qualified commendation. 

He  must  have  been  a  man  whom  nonparty  nor  love 
of  party  could  seduce  from  the  strictest  fairness  and 
truthfulness.  He  could  not  be  used,  he  was  one  of 
the  last  men  to  be  thought  of,  to  plan  and  carry  out 
certain  stratagems.  He  would  have  marred  the  plots 
in  the  councils  of  unfair  men.  Yet  he  could  by  no 
means  have  been  weak ;  for  then  there  would  have 
been  no  virtue  in  his  guileless  character  to  have 
excited  commendation.  There  is  a  simplicity  which 
is  mere  simpleness ;  and  this  is  far  from  being  the 
object  of  commendation  in  the  text.  Good  sense 
must  judge  how  far  truth  and  honesty  require  us  to 
proceed  in  giving  information  to  those  with  whom  we 
deal.  There  is  a  justice  due  to  ourselves,  according 
to  the  laws  of  society,  which  we  can  not  properly 
disregard,  and  the  man  is  weak  who  does  not  consider 
it.  A  sound  mercantile  conscience  is  an  honorable 
and  enviable  thing  —  a  conscience  which  on  the  one 
hand  is  not  morbid,  knows  where  justice  requires  us 
to  stop,  is  able  to  resist  the  strongest  feelings  of  com- 
miseration at  proper  times,  and  will  not  sufier  unjusti- 
fiable loss  in  going  beyond  the  requirements  of  fair 
and  honorable  trade  —  a  conscience  which  is  not 
ready   to    surrender   every   thing    on    demand,    but. 


NATHANAEL.  173 

taught  by  knowledge  and  experience,  feels  impelled 
to  ask,  "  Can  any  good  thing  come  out  of  Nazareth  ? " 
yet,  on  the  other  hand,  a  conscience  Avhich  shrinks 
from  duplicity,  and  in  a  word  remonstrates,  unless  it  is 
clear  that  in  the  transaction  there  is  no  guile.  Trade 
is  eminently  fitted  to  make  such  a  conscience,  afford- 
ing, as  it  does  every  hour,  opportunity  for  practice. 
No  rules  were  ever  given  to  meet  even  a  small  part  of 
the  cases  which  may  arise.  The  Saviour's  commenda- 
tion of  Nathanael,  remembered  and  earnestly  coveted, 
will  be  sufficient  to  make  us  upright  and  fair,  while 
selfishness  will  generally  remain  in  a  sufficient  degree 
to  keep  us  from  being  righteous  overmuch. 

It  may  be  said  with  truth  that  there  is  hardly  one 
thing  in  which  religion  suffers  more  at  the  hands  of 
those  who  are  members  of  churches  than  when  they 
are  known  to  be  deceitful  in  business.  If  they  are 
detected  in  fraudulent  transactions,  the  cause  of  truth 
suffers  beyond  measure,  the  hands  of  the  good  are 
weakened,  and  bad  men  are  encouraged  in  their  sneers. 
There  are  those  of  whom  the  Bible  says,  "  Their 
throat  is  an  open  sepulchre ;  "  for  on  coming  near  them 
you  are  sure  to  be  reminded  of  the  decayed  reputation 
of  professed  Christians.  Those  receptacles  of  the  dead 
yawn  greedily  to  receive  each  new  defaulter  from  the 
church.  All  this  is  good  testimony  that  there  is  such 
a  thing  as  true  religion,  and  that  it  is  chiefly  looked 
for  in  certain  directions  ;  but  yet  we  can  dispense  with 

15* 


174  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

counterfeit  money,  notwithstanding  it  is  a  true  index 
of  a  sound  currency.  A  greater  cause  for  sorrow, 
perhaps,  to  the  friends  of  truth,  is  when  a  Christian 
church  fails  to  vindicate  itself  before  the  community 
by  a  pronounced  abhorrence  of  deceit  or  fraud  in 
those  who  are  known  to  be  deserving  of  church  dis- 
cipline. 

We  are  furnished  by  this  subject  with  instruction 
as  to  some  of  the  ways  in  which  our  influence  as 
Christians  may  be  greatly  useful.  One  who  is  known 
to  have  resisted  a  temptation  to  overreach  or  defraud, 
and  has  acted  uprightly  from  force  of  principle,  is 
taken  by  many  as  an  exponent  of  religion.  The 
thought  of  him  comes  to  their  minds  when  listening 
to  appeals  addressed  to  their  consciences  and  hearts ; 
whereas  the  knowledge  of  one  who  makes  professions 
of  piety,  or  is  simply  known  as  a  church  member, 
and  is  unfair,  will  weaken  the  sense  of  religious  ob- 
ligations in  those  who  say  that  they  prefer  morality 
without  religion  to  religion  without  morality  —  a 
kind  of  religion,  indeed,  which  has  no  existence 
except  in  name. 

A  low,  unworthy  state  of  feeling  and  conduct  in  a 
Christian  is  owing  as  often  as  to  any  other  cause  to 
this  —  that  he  practices  guile  in  his  relations  to  God. 
The  world,  hard  and  unjust,  oftentimes,  in  its  judg- 
ment of  Christians,  is  frequently  right  when  it  asks 
concerning  some  who  profess  to  be  Christians,  "  What 


NATHANAEL. 


175 


do  ye  more  than  others  1 "  There  is  nothing  in  the 
principles  which  seem  to  rule  their  feelings  and  con- 
duct, nothing  in  the  spirit  which  they  breathe,  dif- 
ferent from  the  world  around  them.  We  can  not 
sincerely  believe  that  which  we  profess  respecting 
redemption  and  retributions,  we  can  not  believe  in 
such  a  Saviour  as  we  profess  to  follow,  nor  love  him 
as  such  a  Saviour  is  loved  by  all  who  are  faithful  to 
him,  and  not  be  diiferent  from  those  who  have  no  such 
faith.  Where  is  the  Christian  sobriety,  the  cheerful 
trust,  the  ardent  love,  the  ready  zeal,  which  are  the 
natural  effect  of  believing  in  and  loving  such  a  Sa- 
viour? There  is  reason  to  fear  that  we  sometimes 
practice  guile  in  our  very  intercourse  with  Christ. 
What  must  he  think  of  us,  if,  while  acknowledging 
the  debt  of  love  and  gratitude  arising  from  his  death, 
we  are  mere  formalists  1  No  one  ever  deceived  him  ; 
he  reads  our  hearts  ;  he  has  a  perfect  judgment,  a 
fixed  opinion,  of  every  one  of  us.  Professions  of  love, 
zealous  attachments  to  the  forms  of  religion,  to  the  doc- 
trines of  the  gospel,  are  of  themselves  useless  to  him. 
While  I  was  standing  at  the  dying  bed  of  one  whom 
many  of  you  so  highly  respected  and  revered  among 
other  things  for  his  consistent  Christian  character  and 
his  great  sincerity,*  he  sent  messages  in  his  delirium  to 

some  of  his  friends,  and  this  was  one  of  them :  "  Tell 

that  there  is  no  bartering  with  God."     He  had  for- 

*  Rev.  B.  B.  Wisner,  D.  D. 


176  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

merly  liad  reason  to  be  dissatisfied  with  the  individual 
whom  he  here  named,  as  wanting  in  that  transparency 
of  motives  in  his  Christian  policy  which  marked  his 
own  character,  though  his  friend  was  eminently  a  use- 
ful man.  The  message  was  never  delivered,  but  it 
sunk  deep  into  the  hearts  of  those  that  heard  it. 
"  There  is  no  bartering  with  God."  We  can  each  in- 
terpret for  himself  this  imperfect  utterance  from  a 
dying  bed. 

Perhaps  it  was  because  the  kind  and  forbearing 
nature  of  the  new  dispensation  would  afford  great 
room  for  deceit  in  very  many  cases,  that  early  in  that 
dispensation,  one  of  the  most  terrible  judgments  of 
God  fell  on  two  professors  of  religion,  Ananias  and 
Sapphira.  It  is  not  presuming  to  suppose  that  God, 
who,  while  he  is  the  God  of  salvation,  is  a  jealous  God, 
and  will  not  be  mocked,  saw  fit  by  this  judgment  to 
warn  men  that  the  soothing  and  conciliating  spirit  of 
the  gospel  would  make  no  compromise  with  insincer- 
ity ;  that  God  sets  no  value  on  gifts  nor  professions 
of  obedience,  nor  does  he  seek  our  names  or  influence 
as  though  he  needed  any  thing,  and  that  if  we  deal 
with  him,  we  must  remember  that  God  is  not  mocked, 
"  neither  is  there  any  creature  that  is  not  manifest  in 
his  sight ;  but  all  things  are  naked  and  opened  unto 
the  eyes  of  him  with  whom  we  have  to  do."  This,  no 
doubt,  was  the  lesson  taught  the  early  church  by  the 


NATHANAEL.  177 

death  of  Ananias  and  Sapphira,  for  we  are  told  that 
"  great  fear  came  upon  all  the  church,  and  upon  as  many 
as  heard  these  things."  We  must  not  secretly  feel  that 
the  gospel  has  removed  the  law  as  our  rule  of  duty, 
nor  lowered  its  standard ;  nor  that  holiness  and  sin  are 
in  any  Avise  changed  since  that  law  was  promulgated 
with  lightnings  and  thunders,  and  enforced  in  the  times 
of  God's  immediate  presence  with  men  as  their  King 
by  such  fearful  judgments.  But  on  the  contrary,  we 
ought  to  feel  that  as  the  spirituality  of  the  law  is 
greatly  illustrated  by  Christ,  and  as  mercy  has  become 
the  prominent  feature  of  the  divine  administration 
under  the  gospel,  a  higher  degree  of  conformity  to 
God,  a  more  scrupulous  regard  for  inward  truth  and 
purity,  is,  if  possible,  expected  of  those  who  live  under 
such  a  dispensation.  This  argument  is  pressed  in  a 
forcible  manner  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  More 
than  once  we  are  admonished  in  the  New  Testament 
that  more  will  be  required  of  us,  and  less  excuse  will 
be  made  for  us,  than  if  we  lived  before  the  coming  of 
Christ.  There  was  "  a  sort  of  untruthful  policy  cur- 
rent in  the  early  times  even  among  those  who  are  re- 
corded as  the  righteous  and  the  believing,  and  which 
seems  to  have  been  not  only  tolerated  among  men, 
but  in  those  days  of  the  world's  yet  rudimental  mo- 
rality to  have  .been  permitted  by  God  —  the  days  of 
ignorance  which  God  winked  at,  and  when  conces- 
sions were  made  of  a  less  strict  and  elevated  morality. 


178  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

even  to  his  own  people,  because  of  the  hardness  of 
their  hearts."  *  —  But  now  the  darkness  is  past,  and 
the  true  light  shines.  While  the  Old  Testament  fur- 
nishes us  with  examples  of  the  highest  spirituality, 
and  our  language  in  confessions  of  sin  and  desires 
after  holiness  is  chiefly  drawn  from  the  Psalms  of 
David,  it  is  also  true  that  it  is  the  nature  of  the  gos- 
pel to  furnish  still  higher  motives  to  the  strictest 
conformity  to  God,  while  by  its  redeeming  blood  and 
witnessing  spirit,  and  the  light  which  is  poured  upon 
truth  and  duty  through  the  accumulated  experience 
and  examples  of  believers,  we  are  made  inexcusable  if 
we  fail  to  serve  God  with  reverence  and  godly  fear,  or 
if  we  do  not  live  and  act  feeling  that  "  our  God  is  a 
consuming  fire,"  and  that  sin  is  fuel  wherever  found. 
Truth  among  men,  illustrated  and  enforced  by  the 
example  of  those  w^ho,  as  Christians,  should  be  pat- 
terns of  it  in  business,  in  politics,  in  Avriting  and 
speaking,  in  fashionable  life,  in  the  management  of 
children,  in  their  intercourse  with  God,  is  at  present 
our  great  need.  Its  prevalence  would  prevent  wide- 
spread disasters  in  our  mercantile  affairs  ;  it  would  be 
a  leaven  in  Christian  character  which  would  aflect 
society  in  every  part ;  many  a  controversy  would 
be  prevented,  many  an  excitement  which  sweeps 
through  the  land  would  be  arrested,  njany  a  project 
which  embroils  individuals  and  sections  of  the  coun- 

*  Dr.  Chalmers. 


NATHANAEL.  179 

try  against  each  other  would  never  see  the  light. 
As  the  number  of  those  Israelites  increase  in  whom  is 
no  guile,  we  shall  see  pure  religion  prosper,  and 
there  will  be  "  peace  upon  Israel." 

It  is  interesting  to  see,  as  we  do,  from  this  inter- 
view between  Christ  and  Nathanael,  that  no  one  can 
be  secretly  good  and  not  be  seen  and  approved  by 
Christ.  Nathanael  had  not  come  to  the  knowledge  of 
the  Messiah  when  Christ  first  loved  him.  "  Before 
that  Philip  called  thee,  when  thou  wast  under  the  fig 
tree,  I  saw  thee."  We  should  all  be  willing  to  know 
what  he  was  doing  under  that  fig  tree.  It  is  hardly 
to  be  supposed  that  it  was  some  common  act  of  prayer. 
Some  secret  deed  of  piety,  of  which  Christ  would  not 
inform  Philip,  the  Saviour  had  witnessed  there  —  some 
special  sorrow  and  repentance,  some  covenanting  with 
God,  some  forgiving  interview  with  an  enemy,  or  se- 
cret protestation  before  God  of  forgiveness,  some  sea- 
son of  devotion  in  the  midst  of  an  overwhelming 
trial,  some  special  thanksgiving ;  at  all  events,  a  spir- 
itual experience  with  which  the  fig  tree  that  served 
him  in  his  retirement  was  always  remembered  by 
him,  as  a  stone  or  pillar  in  his   history. 

Christ  seemed  to  take  pleasure  in  the  thought  of  all 
which  Nathanael  was  to  enjoy  in  knowing  him  as  the 
Mediator.  We  notice  his  kindness  in  responding  as 
he  did  to  the  faith  of  Nathanael,  who  exclaimed  at  the 
proof  which  he  had  received  of  Christ's  omniscience, 


180  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

"  Rabbi,  thou  art  the  Son  of  God,  thou  art  the  King 
of  Israel.  Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  him,  Be- 
cause I  saw  thee  under  the  fig  tree,  believest  thou  1 
Thou  shalt  see  greater  things  than  these.  And  he  saith 
unto  him,  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you.  Hereafter  ye 
shall  see  heaven  open,  and  the  angels  of  God  ascending 
and  descending  upon  the  Son  of  man."  Christ  here 
connects  .Jacob  and  Jacob's  experience  with  Nathanael, 
in  the  mind  of  Nathanael.  Jacob's  pile  of  stones 
proved  to  be  the  foot  of  a  ladder  which  maintained 
communication  between  heaven  and  earth.  Nathan- 
ael's  fig  tree  would  prove  to  be  like  the  foot  of  a 
ladder,  or  the  beginning  of  events,  by  which  as  great 
things  as  Jacob  saw  should  be  revealed  to  him.  For 
Christ  was  to  bring  heaven  and  earth  into  nearer 
fellowship  and  communion ;  Nathanael  was  to  know 
and  love  Christ,  by  Avhom  he  would  come  to  the 
Father,  and  the  Father  would  draw  nearer  to  him. 
Could  we  know  the  history  of  Nathanael  as  a  Christian 
disciple,  we  should,  no  doubt,  see  a  man  whom  Christ 
greatly  loved,  and  who  loved  Christ;  an  Enoch,  who 
walked  with  God.  He  disappears,  however,  among 
those  who  are  hereafter  to  shine  forth  as  the  sun  in 
the  kingdom  of  their  Father. 

If  we  will  put  away  from  us  all  guile  in  our  inter- 
course with  Christ,  if  we  will  be  strictly  observant  of 
our  word  which  we  have  given  him,  and  be  in  secret 
that  which  we  profess  at  the  table  of  Christ  to  be, 


NATHAN  AEL.  181 

then  he  to  whom  one  said,  "  Thou  knowest  all  things, 
thou  knowest  that  I  love  thee,"  whose  favor  is  life, 
whose  loving  kindness  is  better  than  life,  will  be  our 
Friend.  The  beloved  disciple  tells  us  how  we  are  to 
secure  and  maintain  true  friendship  with  God :  "  If 
we  walk  in  the  light  as  he  is  in  the  light,  we  have  fel- 
lowship one  with  another ;  "  that  is,  God  and  we  ;  then, 
and  not  unless  we  are  thus  sincere,  then,  "  the  blood 
of  Jesus  Christ  his  Son,  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin." 
Of  all  the  instances  of  simplicity  in  the  communica- 
tion of  truth,  a  simplicity  which  the  Holy  Ghost  alone 
teaches,  perhaps  we  rarely  find  an  instance  which  sur- 
passes one  which  occurs  in  this  same  beloved  disci- 
ple :  "  This  then  is  the  message  which  we  have  heard 
from  him,"  —  at  which  words  we  expect  some  great 
disclosure,  —  "  that  God  is  light,  and  in  him  is  no 
darkness  at  all."  So  simple,  so  obvious,  do  these 
words  seem,  we  are  tempted  to  pass  them  by.  Apply 
them,  however,  to  the  exercises  of  your  deceitful  heart 
for  one  day,  examine  your  Christian  consistency  by 
them,  your  fairness,  your  truthfulness,  and  you  will 
see  the  practical  value  of  the  words,  as  well  as  the 
admonitory,  and  to  the  doubting  and  desponding,  and 
to  the  perplexed  and  despairing  soul,  the  cheering  and 
consoling  nature  of  that  "  message."  In  proportion  as 
we  walk  in  the  light,  we  are  sincere,  and  so  have  fel- 
lowship with  God  and  with  Christ,  and  we  are  taught 
by  the  Saviour's  words  to  Nathanael  that  we  shall  then 

16 


182  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

see  continually  greater  things  in  the  disclosures  of  di- 
vine wisdom  and  goodness  to  our  experience.  May  the 
Spirit  help  our  infirmity.  "  Lord,  who  shall  abide  in 
thy  tabernacle,  who  shall  dwell  in  thy  holy  hill  ? 
He  that  walketh  uprightly,  and  worketh  righteous- 
ness, and  speaketh  the  truth  in  his  heart."  What- 
ever qualities  in  some  whom  Christ  loved  are  un- 
attainable by  us,  or  whatever  circumstances  favored 
them  in  obtaining  blessings  from  him  which  we  can 
not  enjoy,  there  is  one  commendation  from  which  we 
surely  may  not  feel  necessarily  debarred,  one  which 
if  we  possess,  we  shall  "  never  fall,  but  so  an  entrance 
will  be  ministered  to  us  abundantly  into  the  everlast- 
ing kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ." 
That  commendation,  bestowed  upon  Nathanael,  is  a 
surer  passport  to  general  respect  and  influence  than 
any  thing  else,  because  it  is  something  which  all  can 
appreciate,  and  to  which  every  man  is  willing  to  do 
homage.  Its  chief  value  is  in  this  —  that  it  prepares 
us  for  fellowship  with  God  on  earth,  for  great  advances 
in  every  form  of  moral  excellence,  for  peace  and  comfort 
in  life  and  death,  and  through  grace  for  acceptance  with 
Him  who  is  to  judge  the  secrets  of  men's  hearts  for 
their  last  rewards.  With  all  the  many  occasions  which 
others  have  had  for  love  and  praise  from  Christ,  we 
would  desire  not  the  least,  but  rather  first  of  all,  that 
Christ  might  say  of  each  of  us,  —  "  in  whom  is  no 
guile." 


SERMON  IX. 


THE   FRIEND  OF   SEAMEN. 


MATTHEW  IV.  18-22. 

i^ND  JESUS,  WALKING  BY  THE  SEA  OF  GALILEE,  SAW  TWO  BRETHREN,  SIMON, 
CALLED  PETER,  AND  ANDREW,  HIS  BROTHER,  CASTING  A  NET  INTO  THB 
SEA  ;   FOR  THEY  WERE  FISHERS. 

AND  HE  8AITH  TJNTO  THEM,  FOLLOW  ME  ;  AND  THEY  STRAIGHTWAY  LEFT  THEIR 
NETS  AND   FOLLOWED   HIM. 

AND  GOING  ON  FROM  THENCE,  HE  SAW  OTHER  TWO  BRETHREN,  JAMES,  THE 
SON  OF  ZEBEDEE,  AND  JOHN,  HIS  BROTHER,  IN  A  SHIP  WITH  ZEBEDEE, 
THEIR  FATHER,    MENDING   THEIR  NETS  ;    AND   HE    CALLED  THEM. 

AND  THEY  IMMEDIATELY  LEFT  THE  SHIP  AND  THEIR  FATHER,  AND  FOLLOWED 
HIM. 

There  is  reason  to  think,  as  many  do,  that  the  Saviour 
of  the  world  is  in  a  special  manner  the  Friend  of  sea- 
men. He  showed  an  interest  when  on  earth  in  classes  ; 
for  example,  in  the  afflicted,  in  great  sinners,  and  in 
children.  Among  the  reasons  which  lead  us  to  think 
that  he  may  be  called  the  Friend  of  seamen  is.  Their 
opportunities  and  qualifications  for  promoting  religion 
in  the  earth  are  great,  and,  Christ  chose  four  out  of 
twelve  of  his  first  Apostles  from  the  sea.  His  selec- 
tion of  a  third  part  of  his  twelve  disciples  from  one 

(183) 


184  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

class  suggests  the  belief  that  he  was  interested  in 
men  of  that  calling ;  and  if  so,  the  probable  reasons 
for  that  interest  apply  as  well  to  seamen  at  the  pres- 
ent day  as  to  the  fishermen  of  Galilee.  We  will  not 
press  this  point  till  we  consider  if  there  be  good 
reasons  to  sustain  it. 

Suppose  that  Christ  had  selected  four  of  his  twelve 
Disciples  and  Apostles  from  the  medical  profession,  or 
that  four  of  them  had  been  Jewish  priests,  or  that 
four  had  been  lawyers ;  could  we  have  resisted  the 
impression  that  there  were  reasons  which  led  him  to 
look  with  peculiar  interest  on  those  classes  as  afford- 
ing special  qualifications  for  usefulness  in  the  early 
service  of  his  religion'? 

We  can  not,  therefore,  believe  that  the  noticeable 
proportion  of  his  first  twelve  Apostles,  who  were 
taken  from  among  the  fishermen  of  Galilee,  was  ac- 
cidental. It  seems  to  show  a  special  interest  in  that 
class  of  men ;  it  may  be  from  the  circumstance  that 
in  belonging  to  that  class  they  had  special  qualifica- 
tions for  usefulness  as  his  first  disciples. 

When  we  look  at  the  influences  which  afiect  the 
progress  of  the  Christian  religion  in  the  earth,  and 
see  what  a  distinguished  part  the  seafaring  class  have 
borne,  and  still  bear,  in  spreading  or  hindering  the 
truth,  —  when  we  consider  how  interesting  in  them- 
selves as  a  class  seamen  always  have  been,  and  always 
will  be,  to  those  who  appreciate  their  character  and 


THE  FRIEND  OF  SEAMEN.  185 

the  influences  which  surround  them,  —  we  hazard 
little  in  saying  that  the  interest  manifested  by  the 
Saviour  in  the  fishermen  of  Galilee  affords  ground 
to  think  that  the  mariner,  in  all  subsequent  time,  is, 
for  the  same  obvious  reasons,  a  special  object  of  his 
regard. 

Had  Christ  laid  the  scene  of  his  earthly  labors 
along  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  it  is  not  im- 
possible that  the  motives  which  led  him  to  select 
those  four  inland  seamen  as  Apostles  would  have  led 
nim  to  seek  and  find  an  Andrew  and  Peter,  a  James 
and  John,  among  the  sea-going  class  in  the  ports  of 
foreign  commerce.  But  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
which  is  like  a  grain  of  mustard  seed,  and  like 
leaven  which  is  hid,  began  in  a  more  humble  and 
private  manner,  in  accordance  with  its  nature  as  con- 
trasted with  the  pride  and  pomp  of  men.  Bethlehem 
Ephratah,  so  little  among  the  thousands  of  Judah, 
Nazareth,  its  name  contemptuously  proverbial,  Gali- 
lee, with  its  large  infusion  of  Gentiles,  and  its  broad, 
corrupted  dialect,  were  the  first  witnesses  of  that  stone 
which  was  cut  out  of  the  mountains  without  hands, 
and  is  to  fill  the  earth.  Accordingly  He  who  was  to 
have  dominion  from  sea  to  sea,  and  from  the  river  to 
the  ends  of  the  earth,  seems  to  have  made  an  inland 
water  the  emblem  of  his  triumph  and  dominion  over 
the  undiscovered  oceans ;  his  native  lake  was  the  Beth- 
lehem of  the  seas,  and  the  fishermen  of  Galilee  the 

16* 


186  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

first  fruits  of  a  most  interesting  and  useful  class  of 
men,  to  whom  he  jDurposed  to  show  great  love  and 
kindness  by  employing  them  in  the  ages  to  come  as 
fishers  of  men.  If  in  the  following  discourse  too 
much  is  taken  for  granted,  or  asserted,  with  regard  to 
the  interest  which  Christ  feels  in  seamen,  —  if  a  strong 
love  for  them,  and  a  deep  interest  in  their  calling,  in 
their  exposures,  in  their  Christian  character  and  use- 
fulness, seem  to  exaggerate  the  feelings  of  Christ 
toward  them,  —  let  it  be  considered,  if  the  love  and 
interest  of  Christians  with  regard  to  them  for  the  rea- 
sons assigned  be  so  great,  whether  it  be  not  probable 
that  he  that  hath  wrought  us  for  the  selfsame  thing 
is  God ;  and  if  we,  being  evil,  feel  thus,  how  much 
more  docs  He  who  can  perfectly  appreciate  the  reasons 
for  these  feelings. 

The  Sea  or  Lake  of  Galilee  has  two  other  names  in 
Scripture ;  viz.,  the  Sea  of  Tiberias,  and  the  Lake  of 
Gennesareth,  because  Tiberias  and  Gennesareth  were 
important  towns  on  its  south-western  and  western 
borders,  while  it  lay  in  that  part  of  Palestine  called 
Galilee.  It  is  about  thirteen  miles  in  length,  and 
five  or  six  wide.  Secluded  in  its  situation,  and  sur- 
rounded by  elevated  and  once  fruitful  slopes,  it  affords 
one  of  the  most  striking  prospects  in  the  Holy  Land. 
The  mountains  on  the  east  come  close  to  its  shore ; 
and  these,  with  the  western  hills,  of  which  Tabor  is 
a  summit,  defend  it  from  long-continued  storms,  while, 


THE  FRIEND  OF  SEAMEN.  187 

like  all  inland  waters,  it  is  subject  to  sudden  and 
violent  winds.  The  Jordan  flows  through  it  from 
north  to  south ;  and  when  the  south-east  wind  swept 
up  the  lake  and  met  the  current  of  the  river,  we  can 
easily  conceive  of  what  the  sacred  historian  tells  us 
respecting  its  boisterous  condition  when  it  wrought 
and  was  tempestuous.  This  was  the  sea  which  the 
Saviour  crossed  repeatedly  in  the  labors  of  his  minis- 
try. On  these  stormy  billows  he  walked  in  the  fourth 
watch  of  a  tempestuous  night.  Here  he  slept  in  the 
hinder  part  of  a  ship  while  the  disciples  were  in  jeop- 
ardy, till  he  arose  and  calmed  the  tempest  with  a 
word.  Here  he  permitted  Peter  to  descend  from  the 
vessel  and  come  to  him  on  the  waves ;  and  over  its 
bosom  he  retreated  from  the  multitudes,  that  in  the 
solitude  of  its  adjacent  wilds  he  might  enjoy  seasons 
of  solitary  prayer.  It  served  him  once  as  a  place 
from  which  he  preached  salvation  to  the  thronging 
multitudes  on  shore,  and  then  rewarded  those  who 
had  lent  him  their  boat  for  a  pulpit  by  giving  them  a 
miraculous  draught  of  fishes. 

The  history  of  one  of  these  four  men  who  were 
chosen  from  that  lake  side  by  Christ  is  a  prominent 
part  of  the  history  of  the  Christian  religion.  He 
who  was  casting  his  net  in  his  humble  occupation  of 
a  fisherman  little  thought  that  he  was  to  be  called  by 
idolatrous  millions  ^Sftmif  Peter;  that  the  most  mag- 
nificent temple  in  the  world  was  to  be  Saint  Peter's 


188  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

Church  ;  that  he  was  to  be  set  up  in  it  in  the  shape 
of  a  bronze  image  of  the  heathen  Jupiter,  and  that 
kings  and  nobles,  rich  and  poor,  would  make  pil- 
grimages from  distant  parts  of  Europe  and  from  Asia 
to  kiss  his  foot.  Though  Christ  foreknew  all  this, 
still  he  called  him  to  be  an  Apostle  ;  for  by  him  in 
many  ways  the  plan  of  salvation,  as  the  power  and 
wisdom  of  God,  was  strikingly  illustrated.  We  also 
see  in  his  history  the  kindness  of  Christ  in  calling  a 
man  to  be  an  Apostle  who,  he  foresaw,  would  deny  him. 
If  the  goodness  of  God  should  be  stayed  in  its  begin- 
nings toward  us  by  the  foresight  of  our  unworthiness, 
who  could  be  saved "?  But  the  love  of  God  is  as  rich 
and  free  toward  them  that  are  called  according  to  his 
purpose  as  though  they  were  to  be  perfect  men.  This 
gives  us  an  affecting  view  of  divine  goodness,  which 
overflows  toward  us  in  some  parts  of  our  lives,  not- 
withstanding it  is  then  foreseen  how  unworthy  of 
such  goodness  our  future  conduct  will  show  us  to  be. 
This  should  encourage  us  to  repent  and  hope  in  the 
mercy  of  God  ;  for  if  the  foresight  of  our  sins  has  not 
prevented  him  from  doing  us  good,  the  remembrance 
of  our  sins,  if  we  repent,  will  not  turn  away  his  mercy 
from  us. 

When  John  the  Baptist  looked  on  Jesus  as  he 
walked,  and  said,  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God,"  one  of 
the  two  which  heard  John  speak  was  Andrew,  Simon 
Peter's  brother.     He  first  findeth  his  own   brothei 


THE  FRIEND  OF  SEAMEN.  189 

Simon,  and  saith  unto  him,  AVe  have  found  the  Mes- 
sias,  which  is,  being  interpreted,  the  Christ.  And  he 
"  brought  him  to  Jesus."  We  do  not  read  much  of 
Andrew  in  the  New  Testament ;  but  who  ever  did 
more  for  the  world  in  an  incidental  way  than  he  in 
bringing  his  brother  to  Christ  1  In  heaven,  he  does 
not  think  that  he  lived  in  vain  when  he  sees  the  fruit 
of  Peter's  ministry,  and  remembers  that  he  first 
brought  him  to  Jesus.  When  we  bring  a  soul  to 
Christ,  we  know  not,  we  can  not  measure,  its  future 
influence.  Among  the  crew  with  whom  you  sail,  in 
your  class  in  the  Sabbath  school,  in  your  district  as  a 
tract  distributor,  in  your  visits  among  the  shipping 
and  to  the  Sailors'  Home,  God  may  employ  you  as 
the  means  of  turning  many  to  righteousness  by  bring- 
ing some  soul  to  Christ.  As  fishers  of  men,  we  need 
to  be  contented  with  using  the  rod  and  line,  if  we  may 
not  employ  the  net ;  for  one  soul  brought  to  Christ 
is  worth  a  whole  life  of  patient  toil. 

When  Christ  looked  on  Peter,  he  said,  "  Thou  art 
Simon,  the  son  of  Jona  ;  thou  shalt  be  called  Ce- 
phas ; "  the  historian  adds,  "  which  is,  by  interpretation, 
a  stone."  The  words  of  Christ  were  few  and  full  of 
meaning,  as  are  generally  those  of  men  who  have 
great  concerns  at  heart.  With  a  foresight  of  Peter's 
relation  to  the  church  as  one  of  the  foundation  stones 
among  Apostles  and  Prophets,  Christ  gave  him  this 


190  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

new  and  significant  name,  which  the  history  of  the 
church  has  verified. 

After  his  first  interview  with  him,  having  given  him 
time  to  think  upon  his  call,  Christ  went  to  Peter  as 
he  was  employed  in  his  daily  labor,  and  called  him, 
with  Andrew,  to  be  his  follower.  They  arose  and 
followed  him.  Before,  they  had  merely  been  his  dis- 
ciples. Some  time  after,  Peter  said  to  Christ,  "  Lo, 
we  have  left  all,  and  have  followed  thee."  It  seems 
that  these  two  men  forsook  their  employment  at 
the  time  of  their  second  call ;  but  we  read  afterwards 
of  Christ  using  Peter's  vessel,  and  of  the  disciples  as 
being  engaged  in  fishing  ;  so  that  they  still,  in  some 
measure,  followed  their  business,  though  they  became 
disciples  and  followers  of  Christ.  But  their  business 
was  thenceforth,  as  ours  should  be,  secondary  to  dis- 
cipleship.  But  we  are  too  apt  to  esteem  our  profes- 
sion, our  business,  as  our  first  concern,  and  disciple- 
ship  to  Christ  as  second  in  importance.  Not  so  will 
it  appear  to  us  in  death  and  in  eternity. 

Christ  finds  and  leaves  us  free  agents.  He  said  to 
one  man,  "  Follow  me,"  who  said,  "  Lord,  sufier  me  first 
to  go  and  bury  my  father."  Another  said,  "  Lord,  I 
will  follow  thee,  but  let  me  first  go  and  bid  them  fare- 
well which  are  at  home  at  my  house."  If  Peter  had 
treated  the  call  of  Christ  as  some  now  treat  it,  and 
had  delayed  like  them,  it  would  have  been  the  most 


THE  FRIEND   OF  SEAMEN.  191 

disastrous  day  of  his  life.  He  might  have  been  a 
successful  fisherman  to  the  end  of  his  days,  and  that 
would  have  been  all.  But  now,  at  the  great  day  when 
they  draw  the  net  ashore  and  gather  the  good  into 
vessels  and  cast  the  bad  away,  this  Apostle  Peter  will 
remember  that  day  when  Christ  called  him  from  the 
lake  and  made  him  fish  in  the  great  sea  for  us  and 
millions  more,  who,  by  his  instrumentality  in  part, 
will  have  been  enclosed  in  that  net.  It  is  deeply 
affecting  to  see  how  every  man  has  his  special  time 
of  mercy,  and  improves  it  or  neglects  it.  When 
Christ  says  to  some  of  us,  "  Follow  me,"  we  may  not 
know  the  time  of  our  visitation. 

Christianity  began  on  the  sea  shore  and  with  sea- 
men. The  employment  of  these  men  on  their  lake, 
no  doubt,  had  a  powerful  efiect  in  forming  their  char- 
acters, and  developing  their  innate  and  widely  difier- 
ing  dispositions.  There  is  a  great  contrast  between 
two  of  these  men.  Peter's  bold,  intrepid  spirit, 
mingled  with  a  little  superstition,  was  nurtured  by 
the  hurricane  and  the  dark,  perilous  nights.  John's 
contemplative  mind  and  his  deeper  feeling  were  culti- 
vated by  the  sweet  influences  of  the  lake  —  its  quiet 
bosom,  the  shadows  of  mountains  and  sky  in  it,  the 
current  of  the  river  gliding  through,  and  by  the  softer 
winds.  What  hours  of  thought  must  such  a  man  as 
he  have  enjoyed  upon  that  lake,  receiving  there,  in 


/ 


192  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

part,  his  education  to  write  his  meditative  Gospel. 
Some  of  the  greatest  scholars  who  write  upon  the 
New  Testament  seem  to  think  it  greater  praise  to 
understand  and  explain  the  Gospel  of  John  than  any 
other  part  of  the  Bible.  His  Gospel  has  occasioned 
more  learned  disquisitions  than  any  other ;  but  many 
have  marred  his  beautiful  simplicity  by  their  tran- 
scendental philosophy  and  sentimental  conceits.  He 
selects  incidents,  he  dwells  on  passages,  of  the  Sa- 
viour's life  which  the  other  evangelists  either  do  not 
mention,  or  pass  with  barely  alluding  to  them.  The 
farewell  discourse  of  Christ  to  his  disciples,  and  his 
last  prayer  with  them,  took  the  deepest  hold  upon  the 
memory  and  the  thoughts  of  John.  Let  us  notice 
here,  as  we  proceed,  the  wisdom  and  beauty  in  the 
manner  in  which  the  Bible  is  composed  ;  for  while 
each  writer  is  superintended  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  so 
that  every  word  is,  in  the  sense  of  superintendence  at 
least,  inspired,  and  while  the  whole  book  has  as  really 
the  authority  of  God  as  though  it  had  been  written 
on  the  throne  of  heaven,  and  had  been  sent  to  us 
visibly  from  the  skies,  the  different  temperaments,  tal- 
ents, tastes,  genius,  memories,  education,  style  of  the 
writers,  are  obvious  in  their  several  compositions.  A 
figure  of  the  Psalmist  will  furnish  us  with  an  illustra- 
tion of  what  has  now  been  said.  He  tells  us  that 
God's  word  is  "  sweeter  also  than  honey  and  the 
honeycomb."     We  never  taste  two  different  portions 


THE  FRIEND   OF   SEAMEN.  193 

of  honey  which  have  exactly  the  same  flavor.  That 
flavor  depends  upon  the  fields  from  which  the  bees 
distil  it.  Different  gardens  have  different  proportions 
of  flowers  and  sweet  herbs,  and  the  same  fields  have 
different  flavors  from  year  to  year,  varying  with  the 
proportions  of  sunshine  and  rain.  God  gives  the  bee 
his  instinct,  and  his  providence  guides  him  ;  but  the 
varying  landscapes  infuse  their  secret,  indefinable 
virtues  into  the  products  of  his  labor.  Thus,  while 
the  word  of  God  is  all  the  richest  honey,  it  partakes 
of  the  varieties  of  the  objects  to  which  its  authors 
had  been  accustomed.  Moses  and  Isaiah  pierced  the 
•vdgorous  plants,  and  extracted  powerful  odors  and 
juices  from  them  ;  David,  the  shepherd,  loved  the 
herbs  and  floAvers  which  fed  his  lambs ;  Habakkuk 
went  up  to  the  verdant  crevices  of  rugged  rocks ; 
John  delighted  in  the  branches  and  flowers  that  over- 
hung the  lake.  How  apt  men  are  to  forget  that  the 
God  whom  they  do  not  love,  but  prefer  created  beauty 
and  goodness  to  him,  is  himself  the  source  of  all 
beauty  and  taste,  and  not  only  creates  every  thing  on 
the  principle  of  true  beauty,  but,  in  composing  a 
Bible  for  the  human  race,  regards  those  principles  in 
the  style  and  manner  of  the  book.  He  loves  variety 
of  genius  and  talent,  and  has  established  it  among 
thrones  and  powers,  and  ordered  it  in  those  whom  he 
selected  to  pen  his  word.  Loving  God  supremely,  let 
"US  like  him  rejoice  in  his  works,  and  let  us  see  that 


19-4  CHRIST  A  FIUEND. 

religion  in  perfection  is  true  beauty  and  true  taste. 
Our  employment  in  heaven,  ^vhere  we  shall  have  no 
toils  and  cares  to  consume  the  most  of  our  time  as 
here,  will,  no  doubt,  be  to  contemplate  God  in  his 
works  and  ways,  to  know  and  love  the  natures  he  has 
made,  to  study  the  depths  of  his  wisdom  and  the  riches 
of  his  beauty  in  creation,  but  especially  in  redemption. 
Some  seem  to  think  that  creation  is  to  be  burned  up 
at  the  last  day ;  that  we  are  to  see  nothing  forever 
but  an  airy  space,  and  be  ourselves  unsubstantial  and 
ghostly ;  and  therefore  they  think  of  death  and  a  fu- 
ture state,  without  knowing  the  cause,  with  reluctance 
and  terror.  He  who  chose  Peter  and  John  from  the 
same  lake,  and  impressed  their  different  characters 
upon  the  Bible,  and  thus  upon  the  characters  and 
thoughts  of  our  race,  is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day, 
and  forever,  and  will  never  cease  to  discriminate  and 
to  manifest  the  riches  of  his  wisdom  and  beauty  in  his 
endless  works  and  ways. 

The  impression  is  irresistible  in  many  minds,  that, 
as  Christ  made  his  first  selection  of  disciples  and 
apostles  from  the  lake,  as  Christianity  thus  began  at 
the  sea  side,  we  are  to  see  wonders  of  mercy  and  grace 
accomplished  by  those  whose  home  is  on  the  deep. 
There  are  many  ways  in  which  they  are  peculiarly 
qualified  for  great  usefulness,  and  enjoy  peculiar  op- 
portunities to  do  good.  They  are  qualified  for  pe- 
culiar usefulness  by  the  habit  of  thought  and  turn  of 


THE  FRIEND   OF  SEAMEN.  195 

mind  which  they  acquire  by  their  calling.  There  is 
no  class  of  men  who,  in  general,  are  more  eloquent 
than  seamen.  The  nature  of  their  illustrations,  drawn 
from  the  most  bold  and  striking  objects  and  scenes  in 
nature ;  their  direct,  forcible  way  of  speaking,  learned 
in  shouting  from  the  tops,  in  calling  and  answering 
in  the  blasts  ;  their  habit  of  promptness  and  energy 
in  all  they  do  ;  their  observation  of  men  and  things 
in  every  degree  of  latitude ;  their  proverbial  benevo- 
lence of  heart,  taught  them  by  their  experience  of 
privation  and  the  necessity  of  kindness  and  humanity, 
and  by  the  uncertain  hold  they  have  on  life  and 
property, —  all  make  them  masters  of  native  eloquence 
when  they  stand  up  before  their  fellow-men,  or  when 
they  speak  in  private.  They  will  tell  you  a  tale  as 
no  other  class  of  men  can  do  it ;  and  what  does  their 
proverbial  disposition  to  spin  their  stories  indicate 
but  a  peculiar  talent  at  observation,  great  reflection, 
and  a  knowledge  of  the  things  which  touch  the  im- 
agination and  heart  1  In  their  social  influence,  then, 
in  public  and  private,  we  see  the  eminent  qualifica- 
tions of  a  converted  seaman  to  be  a  useful  Christian. 
In  thinking  of  the  usefulness  of  seamen  when  con- 
verted, we  err  if  we  confine  our  thoughts  to  the  more 
uninstructed  among  them,  and  forget  how  largely  the 
sea  has  drawn  its  sons  from  other  classes  of  society. 
Not  unfrequently  a  child,  surrounded  with  every  thing 
to  make  him  happy  and  useful  at  home,  brought  up, 


196  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

also,  in  wealth  and  refinement,  has  an  incontrollable 
desire  to  follow  the  sea,  and,  in  many  cases,  to  the 
disappointment  and  grief  of  parents  and  friends.  On 
being  resisted,  sometimes  the  youth  flees ;  he  is  then 
looked  upon  by  some  as  a  fugitive  and  vagabond,  and 
is  given  up  as  lost. 

Now,  we  would  say  nothing,  of  course,  to  encour- 
age young  men  to  run  away  from  their  parents  and 
go  to  sea  without  leave,  nor  would  we  make  it  appear 
that  God  sets  a  bounty  on  filial  disobedience  and  un- 
kindness.  The  way  of  transgressors  is  hard,  and  the 
way  of  the  young  rover  is  eminently  hard.  But  think 
of  the  style  and  stamp  of  character  which  necessarily 
abounds  among  seamen,  in  consequence  of  the  power 
of  the  sea  to  attract  the  bold,  refractory,  daring  spirits 
who  spurn  authority  and  rule  at  home,  and  can  not 
bear  the  restraints  of  trade  and  mechanic  arts,  nor  the 
prisons  and  prison  implements,  as  they  deem  them, 
of  shops  and  handicraft.  They  fly  to  the  sea ;  the 
sea  alone  is  wide  enough  for  them  to  breathe  in ;  the 
sea  has  no  doors  ;  the  deck  seems  broader  to  their 
feet  than  a  whole  village  or  city ;  they  would  "  see 
many  men  and  know  their  minds."  From  this  class 
of  daring,  reckless,  spirits  it  is  true  that  pirates  and 
marauders  rise ;  but  it  is  also  true  that  from  this  class 
proceed  many  who  are  qualified  by  their  native  and 
hitherto  untamed  genius  to  do  great  good.  John 
Newton,  by  his  voyages  and  his  dreadful  experience 


THE  FRIEND   OF  SEAMEN.  197 

in  Africa,  was  qualified  for  eminent  usefulness  to  the 
church.  Names  familiar  to  every  one  illustrate  the 
qualifications  of  converted  seamen  to  do  great  good. 
If  God  should  pour  out  his  Spirit  universally  upon 
seamen,  he  would  bring  into  his  service  as  much  native 
talent  as  by  the  conversion  of  any  other  class  of  men. 
If  all  the  medical  profession  should  be  converted,  if 
all  at  the  bar  should  this  day  be  brought  into  the 
church,  they  would  not  furnish  more  native  talent,  or 
effective  qualifications  to  influence  mankind,  than  the 
seamen  of  our  navies  and  the  mercantile  marine. 

Will  you  say,  '  Where  is  their  education  1 '  Their 
education  1  They  have  taken  every  degree  in  the 
knowledge  of  the  human  heart.  '  But  many  of  them 
are  rash,  indiscreet,  impulsive,  and  inconstant'  By 
these  epithets  you  describe  Simon  Peter.  If  any  of  us 
had  been  counselors  in  setting  up  Christianity,  and 
Simon  Peter  had  been  brought  before  us  as  a  candidate 
for  the  apostleship,  an  apostle  to  the  Jews,  the  learned, 
subtle,  prejudiced  Jew,  and  as  a  foundation  stone, 
among  apostles  and  prophets,  for  the  Christian  church, 
we  should  have  dismissed  him  without  a  hearing. 
Perhaps  you  have  been  tempted  to  wonder  that  Christ 
did  not  lose  patience  with  him.  He  was  sometimes 
bold  enough  to  walk  on  the  very  waves,  and  the  next 
moment  cried  like  a  child  for  help.  Who  could  de- 
pend on  such  a  man "?  He  was  going  to  prison  and 
to  death  for  Christ,  and  though  all  men  should  forsake 


198  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

Christ,  not  he.  A  little  maid,  by  her  casual  question, 
turned  his  constancy  into  treachery  with  oaths  and 
cursing.  He  draws  his  sword  in  a  crowd,  and  cuts 
off  a  man's  ear,  and  then  follows  his  Master  afar  off. 
He  was  a  strange  mixture  of  hardihood  and  tender- 
ness. The  men  around  the  fire  looked  upon  one 
another  and  whispered,  and  then  accused  him  of  be- 
ing a  disciple.  He  braved  their  proof,  and  said,  "  Man, 
I  am  not."  The  cock  crows,  the  eye  of  Christ  turns 
upon  him,  he  goes  out  and  weeps  bitterly.  But  Christ 
loved  him,  knowing  that  grace  would  make  him  a 
most  desirable  instrument  for  the  work  of  an  apostle. 
So  has  it  been,  so  will  it  be,  with  many  a  fugitive  from 
parental  love,  upon  the  deep.  We  have  known  some 
of  the  best  of  men,  whose  sons,  after  every  advantage 
of  education,  and  every  faithful  Christian  effort,  and  in 
spite  of  prayers  and  tears  without  number  on  their  be- 
half, have  indicated  a  restless  and  roving  spirit,  and  have 
gone  into  the  forecastle,  when  we  expected  to  see  them 
in  places  of  usefulness  and  honor  upon  the  land.  We 
would  say  to  such  parents.  There  may  be  a  school  for 
the  child  and  a  part  of  his  education  for  the  service  of 
Christ  such  as  you  would  not  have  chosen.  God  is 
dealing  with  you  and  yours  in  a  way  you  can  not 
understand.  His  way  with  you  is  in  the  sea,  his  path 
is  in  the  great  waters,  and  his  footsteps  are  not  known. 
Perhaps  an  untimely  end  awaits  these  children.  But 
even  then  wait  for  the  disclosures  of  eternity  before 


THE  FRIEND  OF  SEAMEN.  199 

you  judge  with  respect  to  the  dealings  of  your  cov- 
enant-keeping God  with  them  and  with  you. 

In  this  connection,  let  the  appeal  draw  near  to  your 
understanding  and  heart  to  contribute  for  the  spread  of 
religion  among  seamen,  to  establish  chapels  for  them 
and  provide  religious  books.  The  accumulated  reli- 
gious publications  which  you  can  well  spare  will  find 
a  welcome  and  profitable  use  at  the  reading  rooms  of 
the  Sailor's  Homes,  where  they  will  be  distributed 
among  the  chests  which  are  bound  to  sea.  Care 
should  be  taken  lest  inadvertently  you  send  an  hereti- 
cal tract  or  injudicious  book,  or  a  foolish,  hurtful  ro- 
mance, to  prevent  or  destroy  all  the  good  which  the 
Bible  and  the  best  books  might  otherwise  do.  The  for- 
getfulness  of  a  captain  to  provide  playing  cards  for 
a  voyage  left  a  young  mariner  nothing  to  do  for 
amusement  but  to  turn  the  pages  of  some  religious 
books,  which  were  blest  to  his  conversion.  Let  afi*ec- 
tionate,  faithful  Christians  watch  the  arrival  of  crews, 
point  them  to  suitable  boarding  houses,  encourage 
their  attendance  on  public  worship,  and  thus  a 
mother's  prayers  and  a  dying  father's  blessing  may 
have  their  fulfillment  in  the  conversion  of  many  an 
erring  child.  If  you  had  a  sailor  boy,  would  it  not 
give  you  a  deep  interest  in  seamen  1  Would  you 
not  bless  those  who  should  be  kind  to  him,  and  weep 
much  if  Christians  should  neglect  opportunities  to  do 
him  good  1    There  are  parental  hearts  which  can  bleed 


200  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

besides  yours,  there  are  hearts  which  may  be  healed 
by  your  ministrations  to  the  seamen's  cause.  Let  us 
not  think,  however,  that  all  seamen  are  like  Simon 
Peter,  before  he  was  converted,  or  that  the  influence 
of  seamen  is  all  of  a  bold  and  striking  character. 
There  is  many  a  noiseless,  affectionate,  faithful  An- 
drew upon  the  deep ;  many  a  James  ready  to  be 
the  first  martyr  among  the  apostles ;  many  a  John, 
with  the  soul  of  a  poet,  and  a  largeness  of  heart  "like 
the  sand  which  is  on  the  sea  shore."  The  prophet 
says,  "  The  abundance  of  the  sea  shall  be  converted 
unto  thee."  In  the  characters  of  seamen  there  is  as 
great  abundance  as  in  the  commerce  that  floats  upon 
the  deep,  or  the  precious  things  that  are  buried  in  its 
sepulchres. 

Much  is  said  of  their  opportunities  to  do  good. 
They  have*  been,  and,  to  some  extent,  are  now,  among 
the  greatest  hinderances  to  the  propagation  of  the 
gospel.  Officers  and  crews  of  vessels  have  been 
scourges  to  the  islands  and  the  continental  shores  in 
many  seas,  and  when  sailors  are  generally  moral  and 
religious  men,  "  the  multitude  of  the  isles  will  be  glad 
thereof."  A  missionary  tells  us  that  he  knows  of 
whole  districts  of  country  washed  by  the  north  Pacific 
which  have  been  depopulated  by  vices  introduced  by 
seamen.  New  England,  that  happy  name,  has  given 
that  name  around  the  globe  to  an  article  of  her  own 
manufacture  and  export  which  has  been  the  besom 


THE  FRIEND  OF  SEAMEN  201 

of  destruction.  The  time  will  come  when  it  will  be 
as  difficult  to  ship  a  crew  to  carry  that  article  to  a 
barbarous  or  semi-barbarous  people,  knowing  that  the 
principal  use  to  be  made  of  it  will  be  to  intoxicate,  as 
to  ship  those  men  for  piracy.  Great  progress  has  been 
made  in  raising  the  condition  and  character  of  seamen. 
There  were  formerly  but  few  boarding  houses  appro- 
priated to  them  to  which  the  friends  of  seamen  felt 
that  they  could  safely  direct  them.  There  are  now  in 
all  our  ports  many  places  w-here  they  are  protected 
from  injustice  and  furnished  with  means  of  moral 
improvement.  Such  influence  has  no  limits  but  those 
of  the  earth.  It  is  like  disinfecting  a  pestilential 
wind,  and  making  it  like  the  sweet  south,  breathing- 
health  and  joy  wherever  it  comes.  The  Spirit  of  God 
is  moving  on  the  face  of  the  great  deep.  A  letter 
from  a  missionary  at  Lahaina,  Sandwich  Islands, 
some  time  since,  stated  that  three  ships  were  then  riding 
at  anchor  there,  whose  crews  had  been  the  subjects  of 
divine  grace  in  their  respective  voyages  to  those  islands. 
The  blessed  Spirit  visits  these  floating  habitations  on 
their  solitary  way  along  the  deep,  recalling  other  days 
and  scenes  in  the  house  of  God,  and  making  thoughts 
of  home  and  parents,  or  the  Bible  and  tracts  which 
your  kindness  has  placed  on  board,  the  means  of  turn- 
ing the  heart  of  the  sailor  to  his  God.  Not  long 
since  the  Lord's  supper  was  administered  on  board  a 
United  States  ship  of  war  at  sea  to  more  than  twenty 
communicants. 


202  CHRIST  A  FRIEXD. 

Jesus,  walking  on  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  thereby  sig- 
nified, to  all  the  world  that  the  sea  is  his,  and  that 
he  will  have  dominion  from  the  river  to  the  ends  of 
the  earth.  That  little  sea  was  no  smaller  in  pro- 
portion to  the  globe  than  all  the  scenes  and  labors 
of  his  earthly  life  were  to  his  universal  triumph. 
We  will  aid  him  to  bring  all  the  sons  of  the  deep  to 
obey  him.  Missionaries  can  not  do  their  work  effect- 
ually without  them.  Pray  for  the  sailors.  Let  every 
blast  which  presses  against  your  window  be  as  though 
you  heard  a  bell  calling  you  to  prayer  for  them.  They 
die  and  perish  by  hundreds  in  their  full  strength  ; 
they  go  not  from  sick  beds,  but  in  all  the  vigor  of 
health,  into  eternity.  In  1853,  four  hundred  and 
eighty  vessels  were  reported  as  lost,  and  two  thousand 
lives  with  them.  The  average  life  of  sailors  is  now 
about  eleven  years  and  a  half  There  are  supposed  to 
be  three  millions  of  seamen,  of  whom  three  hundred 
thousand  are  British,  and  two  hundred  thousand 
American,  in  all  five  hundred  thousand  speaking 
the  English  tongue. 

The  county  of  Barnstable  in  Massachusetts  num- 
bers over  a  thousand  widows  of  mariners,  and  more 
than  five  thousand  of  their  fatherless  children.  In  a 
storm  several  years  since,  twenty-three  husbands  and 
fathers  belonging  to  the  single  town  of  Truro  perished. 
"What  we  do  for  seamen  we  should  emphatically  do 
with  our  might. 


THE  FRIEND   OF  SEAMEN.  203 

A  collection  of  facts  in  the  conversion  and  religious 
experience  of  seamen  would  excite  great  interest  and 
make  a  powerful  impression.  All  our  seamen's  chap- 
lains are  in  possession  of  numerous  materials  for  such 
a  collection.  One  tells  us  of  a  sailor  boy,  who,  on 
being  converted  at  sea,  finding  no  place  where  he 
could  pray  aloud,  went  up  the  mast  to  the  cross-trees, 
day  and  night,  and  poured  out  his  prayer.  Another 
tells  us  of  a  Christian  sailor  in  a  religious  meeting 
speaking  to  this  effect :  '  Sometimes  as  I  lie  on  deck  in 
my  watch  I  employ  myself  in  counting  the  stars.  I 
mark  off  a  small  place  in  the  heavens,  and  begin  to 
count ;  but  the  more  I  count,  the  thicker  do  the  stars 
come  out.  So,  when  I  am  thinking  and  speaking  of 
Jesus,  it  seems  as  though  I  could  never  stop.  Brethren, 
there  are  unsearchable  riches  in  Jesus.'  Another  tells 
us  of  a  seaman  on  his  dying  bed,  who,  being  asked 
by  a  fellow-sailor,  What  cheer  ]  said,  "  Heaven  heaves 
in  sight;  I  see  the  headland."  The  next  day  the 
question  was  repeated,  What  cheer  1  The  reply  was, 
"  Kounding  the  cape ;  almost  in."  The  third  day, 
the  question  was  repeated,  What  cheer  ?  "In  port," 
his  quivering  lips  replied,  and  the  next  moment, 
"Let  go  the  anchor." 

The  simple-hearted,  generous  love  of  a  converted 
sailor  for  his  Redeemer  and  Friend  excites  —  it  can  not 
be  otherwise  —  peculiar  love  on  the  part  of  Christ. 
The  Saviour  loves  just  such  attachment,  such  impulses 


204  CIIIllST  A  FRIEND. 

of  affection  as  those  of  a  truly  converted  sailor,  and 
all  the  more  for  the  genuine  nature  which  there  is 
in  them.  We  need  not  hesitate,  perhaps,  to  repeat 
the  anecdote  of  a  rough  son  of  the  ocean,  who,  being 
wrought  upon  by  preaching,  stood  up,  and  in  the  first 
impulse  of  true  submission  to  his  Maker,  his  face 
flooded  with  tears,  waved  his  hat,  and  gave  a  cheer, 
using  the  name  of  God.  That  was  his  way  of  saying, 
"The  Lord  reigneth,  let  the  earth  rejoice,  let  the  multi- 
tude of  the  isles  be  glad  thereof; "  nor  did  Gabriel,  per- 
haps, ever  say,  '  Hosanna,'  more  sincerely  or  acceptably 
to  God.  The  interest  and  love  which  such  a  man 
awakens  in  you  is  deeper  far  in  the  heart  of  Christ. 
Judging  from  the  interest  which  certain  individuals 
awakened  in  him  when  on  earth,  we  are  constrained 
to  feel  that  there  are  none  whom  he  loves  more  than 
the  sons  of  the  ocean,  when,  amidst  temptations,  oppo- 
sition, bad  influences  of  every  kind,  in  perils  of 
waters,  in  perils  in  the  city,  in  deaths  oft,  they  love 
and  serve  him  with  all  their  hearts.  We  will  think 
of  Christ  as  the  seamen's  Friend,  pledging  his  friend- 
ship for  them  by  one  of  the  first  acts  of  his  life.  Let 
all  who  preach  to  seamen,  let  all  who  are  specially 
devoted  in  any  way  to  efforts  for  their  good,  be 
encouraged  in  thinking  of  Christ  as  the  seamen's 
Friend.  In  grateful  recollection  of  the  fishermen  of 
Galilee,  let  us  help  the  Seamen's  Friend  Societies,  and 
when  their  cause  is  presented  to  us,  let  us  seem  to 


THE  FRIEND   OF  SEAMEN.  205 

hear  Andrew  and  Peter,  James  and  John,  pleading 
with  us  for  their  brethren.  To  whom  would  they 
be  drawn  with  stronger  interest,  should  they  revisit 
earth,  than  to  their  brethren  on  our  lakes  and  seas'? 
Look  into  that  narrow  place  in  the  ship,  see  that  dim 
lamp,  watch  that  storm-beaten,  weather-stained  face 
of  the  seaman,  as  he  reads  in  a  Bible  which  you  have 
procured  for  him,  that  He  who  made  "  Arcturus,  Orion, 
Pleiades,  and  the  chambers  of  the  south,"  and  who 
"  alone  treadeth  on  the  waves  of  the  sea,"  loves  him, 
and  gave  himself  for  him,  and  says  to  him,  even  to 
him,  Follow  me.  Let  no  sister  of  such  as  he,  through 
our  neglect,  mourn  over  his  hopeless  death,  and  have 
occasion  to  say,  "  Lord,  if  thou  hadst  been  there,  my 
brother  had  not  died."  The  surface  of  the  deep  will 
one  day  be  alive  with  the  hundreds  of  thousands  who 
sleep  in  it.  May  we  have  reason  to  think  that  some 
of  them  by  our  means  had  made  Christ,  who  was 
their  Friend,  the  Saviour  of  their  souls. 


SERMON  X 


JOHN. 


JOHN  XXI.  20. 

THEN  PETER,  TURNING  ABOUT,  SEETH  THE  DISCIPLE  WHOM  JESUS  LOVED  FOL- 
LOWING, WHICH  ALSO  LEANED  ON  HIS  BREAST  AT  SUPPER,  AND  SAID,  LORD, 
"WHICH  IS   HE   THAT   BETRAYETH   THEE  ? 

John  alone  tells  us  that  he  is  that  disciple  Avhom 
Jesus  loved,  and  in  five  instances  he  uses  that  desig- 
nation of  himself  which  no  other  evangelist  has 
applied  to  him.  He  tells  us  that  at  the  last  supper 
"  there  was  leaning  on  Jesus'  bosom  one  of  his  dis- 
ciples whom  Jesus  loved  ;  "  that  Jesus  from  the  cross 
saw  "  his  mother  and  the  disciple  standing  by  whom 
he  loved ;  "  that  Mary  Magdalene  ran  with  the  news 
of  the  resurrection  to  Simon  Peter,  "  and  to  the  other 
disciple  whom  Jesus  loved ; "  that  when  Jesus  ap- 
peared to  the  disciples  at  Tiberias  after  his  resurrec- 
tion, "  that  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved  said  to  Peter, 
It  is  the  Lord  ; "  and  that  Peter,  having  had  his 
own  violent  death  disclosed  to  him  by  Christ,  "  turn- 
ing about,  saw  the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved  follow- 

(206) 


JOHN.  207 

ing,  which  also  leaned  upon  his  breast  at  supper,  and 
said,  Lord,  which  is  he  that  betrayeth  thee  1  " 

It  is  unnecessary  to  say  that  this  disciple  was  grat- 
ified with  this  name  —  a  new  name,  which  the  love 
of  his  adorable  Master  had  written  upon  him;  but 
while  a  friend  and  favorite  of  a  royal  person  might 
be  expected  to  place  great  value  upon  a  name  or  title 
conferred  by  his  king,  to  be  used  by  others  in  address- 
ing him,  it  is  unusual  to  designate  one's  self  as  having 
been  specially  beloved ;  and  it  is  the  more  unusual 
when  others  do  not  thus  refer  to  him.  Some  would 
be  liable  to  the  imputation  of  vanity  under  these  cir- 
cumstances ;  but  a  man  whom  Christ  loved  may  be 
trusted  to  speak  of  himself  Selfishness  in  him  will 
be  controlled  by  humility  —  ambition  and  vanity  be 
displaced  by  simplicity  and  godly  sincerity.  His 
being  beloved  by  Christ  presents  itself  to  the  mind 
of  John  as  a  truth  rather  than  a  cause  for  vain  glory. 
Unconscious  of  wrong  motives  in  speaking  of  it,  he  is 
not  jealous  that  others  will  envy  him  ;  and  at  the 
same  time,  only  one  who  was  conscious  that  his  con- 
duct would  bear  criticism  would  be  willing  to  use  a 
designation  of  himself  which  would  be  sure  to  invite 
the  strictest  scrutiny  of  his  words  and  actions.  Praise 
has  the  effect  upon  a  good  man  to  make  him  humble  ; 
it  makes  him  think  how  many  things  there  are  in 
him  not  discerned  by  others,  which,  if  known,  he 
supposes  would  lessen  their  approbation,  and  that  at 


208  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

least  God  knows  them,  and  it  therefore  seems  a  light 
thing  to  be  judged  of  man's  judgment.  If  love  and 
approbation  from  a  good  man  greatly  esteemed  thus 
discloses  our  unworthiness,  and  acts  as  an  incentive 
to  goodness,  the  love  of  Christ  to  John  must  have  had 
a  subduing  and  purifying  effect  upon  his  character. 
While  it  left  him  still  a  frail  mortal,  it  gave  him  con- 
fidence in  his  motives,  and  made  him  transparent  in 
his  feelings  and  conduct ;  so  that,  with  the  strength 
and  dignity  of  a  man,  he  nevertheless  had  tlie  artless 
simplicity  of  a  child  who  speaks  of  loving  and  being 
loved  with  no  imputation  or  suspicion  from  us  of 
being  vain. 

There  is  an  incident  in  the  history  of  John  which 
is  a  striking  illustration  of  this  simplicity  of  character 
proceeding  from  a  conscience  void  of  offence,  and  at 
the  same  time  it  presents  us  with  the  strongest  form 
of  testimony  from  others  to  the  purity  of  his  character, 
and  shows  us  the  relation  between  him  and  Christ. 

At  the  last  supper  "  Jesus  was  troubled  in  spirit, 
and  testified,  and  said,  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you, 
that  one  of  you  shall  betray  me.  Then  the  disciples 
looked  one  on  another,  doubting  of  whom  he  spake." 
Matthew  says,  "  And  they  were  exceeding  sorrowful, 
and  began  every  one  to  say  unto  him,  Lord,  is  it'1 1  " 
Christ  gave  an  answer,  but  Matthew  does  not  tell  us 
particularly  how  that  answer  was  obtained.  John 
completes  the  narration.     He  says,  "  Now,  there  was 


JOHN.  209 

leaning  upon  Jesus'  bosom  one  of  his  disciples  whom 
Jesus  loved.  Simon  Peter  therefore  beckoned  to  him, 
that  he  should  ask  who  it  should  be  of  whom  he 
spake."  Why  did  not  Simon,  with  his  usual  confi- 
dence, himself  put  that  question  'i  No  place  at  that 
table  was  too  remote  for  the  question  to  be  heard,  or 
for  any  particular  significance  in  it  to  be  perceived. 
It  was  not,  therefore,  because  of  John's  being  next  to 
Christ  that  he  was  thus  employed  by  Simon  to  get 
that  answer.  While  it  is  unquestionably  true  that 
the  Saviour's  known  affection  for  John  may  have  been 
supposed  to  give  him  a  peculiar  privilege  in  putting 
such  a  question,  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  there 
was  another  reason  which  influenced  Simon  to  employ 
John  to  reiterate  that  solemn  question  for  the  twelve 
—  to  address  it  to  the  Saviour  with  the  more  deliber- 
ate and  noticeable  appeal  of  one  pathetic  voice  and 
one  bursting  heart  interceding  for  the  rest.  But  why, 
we  repeat,  did  not  Simon's  heart  and  Simon's  voice  act 
on  this  occasion,  as  they  had  been  so  ready  to  do  at 
other  times  1  The  answer  is  probably  to  be  found 
in  the  nature  of  the  question.  It  were  easy  to  join 
with  eleven  fellow-disciples,  and  say,  "  Lord,  is  it  I  ] " 
for  we  read  that  "  Judas  also,  which  betrayed  him, 
answered,  and  said.  Master,  is  it  I  ? "  But  for  one 
voice  to  break  the  silence  after  all  had  spoken,  and, 
prominently  assuming  the  appearance  of  conscious  in- 
nocence and  strength  in  virtue,  to  seem  bent  on  ob- 


210  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

taining  the  answer,  required  a  confidence  in  one's  own 
character  which  even  beloved  Peter  did  not  seem  to 
possess.  There  was  one  present,  however,  who  Peter 
knew  was  preeminently  qualified  to  put  that  question 

—  one  who  he  knew  could  afTord  to  ask  it,  could  be 
safe  in  asking  it ;  while  one  of  those  singular  presenti- 
ments which  we  can  not  explain  may  at  that  moment 
have  been  casting  its  shadow  upon  the  spirit  of  Peter, 
to  chill  and  to  damp  that  zeal  which  wholly  failed 
soon  after  in  the  hour  of  trial.     O,  there  was  but  one 

—  the  solitude  of  Herod's  judgment  seat,  the  loneli- 
ness of  the  crucifixion,  proved  that  there  was  but  one 

—  at  that  table  who  was  qualified  to  put  that  question 
for  the  rest  while  the  rest  were  silent  —  to  put  it,  not 
in  a  formal  manner,  but  expecting  a  reply  which 
might  not  only  make  a  guilty  conscience  quail,  but 
would  also  terrify  a  heart  which  was  not  more  than 
usually  filled  with  the  perfect  love  which  casteth  out 
fear.  One  such  heart  was  beating  so  near  the  heart 
of  Jesus  at  that  moment  that  the  two  might  have  felt 
each  the  other's  pulsation  —  the  heart  of  one  who 
never  for  a  moment  forsook  his  Friend  in  trouble  and 
sorrow,  but  when  a  cloud  had  covered  him  like  the 
sun  at  his  going  down,  and  vailed  the  stars,  stood  vis- 
ible through  the  mist,  an  evening  star,  the  lone  wit- 
ness of  his  Lord.  To  him  one  beckons  that  he  should 
demand,  with  the  strength  of  suspected,  injured,  yet 
conscious  love,  which  of  them  should  do  this  thing. 


JOHN.  211 

Who  of  us  would  be  willing  to  stand  forth  in  the 
name  of  the  company  of  disciples  to  which  he  be- 
longs, and  say,  "  Lord,  which  is  he  that  betrayeth 
thee]  "  Each  of  us  can  join  his  voice  with  the  rest, 
and  say,  "  Lord,  is  it  IV  But  where  is  the  disciple 
to  whom  the  rest  of  us  may  beckon  that  he  should 
ask  for  us,  '  Lord,  who  is  it  ? ' 

John  never  forgot  that  he  was  the  disciple  selected 
by  Peter  to  put  that  question ;  for,  with  the  same 
simplicity  which  the  consciousness  of  love  and  faith- 
fulness inspires,  he  tells  us  in  the  text  not  only  that 
he  is  that  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved,  but  "  which  also 
leaned  on  his  breast  at  supper,  and  said.  Lord,  which 
is  he  that  betrayeth  thee  1 "  As  the  effectual  prayer 
of  a  righteous  man  availeth  much,  John's  question 
obtained  an  answer  ;  but,  on  close  examination  of 
the  narrative,  we  shall  find  that  the  answer  was  whis- 
pered to  him,  and  that  the  rest  of  the  company  did 
not  hear  it.  True,  Matthew  gives  the  answer,  but  he 
does  not  say  in  what  manner  it  was  obtained.  It 
was  enough  for  the  purposes  of  the  narrative  to  say 
what  the  answer  proved  to  be ;  but  that  the  disciples 
did  not  learn  it  before  Judas  put  the  question  for 
himself,  is,  in  the  opinion  of  the  best  commentators, 
made  certain  by  the  account  which  is  given  by  John. 
Preeminent  goodness,  and  great  proficiency  in  wick- 
edness, John  and  Judas,  each  can  boldly  say,  "  Lord, 
which  is  he  that  betrayeth  thee  1 " 


212  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

This  secret  communication  of  Christ  to  John  is  an 
illustration  of  their  intimate  relations,  and  of  the  con- 
fidence which  Christ  felt  in  the  character  of  the  be- 
loved disciple.  "  The  secret  of  the  Lord  is  with  them 
that  fear  him,  and  he  will  show  them  his  covenant." 
Beautiful  instances  do  we  find  in  the  Bible  of  this  con- 
fiding of  secrets  in  the  intercourse  of  God  with  man. 
"  And  the  Lord  said,  Shall  I  hide  from  Abraham  that 
thing  which  I  do  ■?  For  I  know  him,  that  he  will 
command  his  children  and  his  household  after  him, 
and  they  shall  keep  the  way  of  the  Lord."  Perhaps 
the  most  affecting  instance  of  this  is  the  disclosure  to 
the  child  Samuel  of  the  di\dne  purposes,  it  being  fore- 
seen that  Samuel  would  be  a  man  in  whom  the  Most 
High  could  trust.  Though  God  now  makes  no  dis- 
closures to  good  men  respecting  things  to  come,  the 
Bible  teaches  us  that  "  the  pure  in  heart  shall  see 
God ;  "  that  "  he  that  dwelleth  in  the  secret  place  of 
the  Most  High  shall  abide  under  the  shadow  of  the 
Almighty."  The  willingness  of  John  to  relate,  as  we 
may  say,  his  religious  experience,  to  speak  of  intimate 
love  and  special  favors  from  Christ,  is  one  of  the  best 
evidences  of  the  purity  of  his  feelings,  the  absence 
from  his  heart  and  life  of  all  those  inconsistencies  of 
allowed  sin  which,  through  the  power  of  conscience, 
would  have  prevented  these  disclosures  to  the  world 
of  special  intimacy  with  Christ. 

Let  us  not  think  of  John  as  a  soft  character,  win- 


JOHN.  213 

ning  the  love  of  Christ  for  inoffensive,  amiable,  gentle 
qualities.  Such  was  not  the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved. 
If  he  inherited  any  thing  of  his  mother's  disposition, 
he  was  far  from  being  such  a  man.  That  mother  must 
have  been  a  remarkable  woman ;  for  none  but  a  woman 
of  high  spirit,  supreme  ambition,  good  address,  intense 
love  for  her  children  bearing  her  onward  to  strange 
adventure  in  their  behalf,  would  have  led  her  to  do 
the  thing  which  chiefly  marks  her  character. 

She  supposed  that  Christ  was  to  be  an  earthly  po- 
tentate ;  she  would  bespeak  the  two  highest  offices  in 
his  kingdom  for  her  two  sons.  Her  request  is  not 
the  spiritual,  humble  prayer  of  another,  on  a  different 
occasion :  "  Lord,  remember  me  when  thou  comest  into 
thy  kingdom."  Irrespective  of  qualifications  and 
claims  on  the  part  of  others,  with  a  high  opinion,  no 
doubt,  of  her  children's  talents,  she,  though  the  wife 
of  a  fisherman  of  Galilee,  made  bold  to  present  her 
sons  as  candidates  for  the  highest  places  under  the 
reign  of  Messiah.  It  is  true,  she  was  Salome,  the  sis- 
ter, or  cousin,  as  many  suppose,  of  Mary,  the  mother 
of  Christ,  and  perhaps  she  presumed  on  this  relation. 
She  was  at  the  cross  and  at  the  tomb  of  Christ.  To 
be  the  mother  of  two  such  sons  —  James,  the  first 
martyr  among  the  apostles,  and  John,  his  brother  — 
gave  her  the  honorable  designation  by  which  she  is 
known.  She  was,  indeed,  "  a  joyful  mother  of  chil- 
dren."    If  the  saying  be  true,  that  "  mind  is  from  the 


214  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

mother,"  the  mother  of  John  is  for  more  than  one 
reason  blessed  among  women.  She  felt,  with  more 
reason  than  most  parents  have,  that  her  children  were 
deserving  of  honor  and  confidence.  But  her  sons  in- 
stigated her.  Ambitious  sons  are  more  sure  of  disin- 
terested service  from  their  mothers  than  from  any  other 
relative  or  friend.  Mark  gives  the  narrative  with  one 
of  those  discrepancies  without  which  there  would  have 
been  less  use  in  employing  four  men  to  write  the  his- 
tory of  Christ.  Matthew,  being  one  of  the  twelve, 
forbears  to  blame  his  brethren,  though  "the  ten  began 
to  be  much  displeased  with  James  and  John."  But 
Mark,  not  being  of  the  number,  lays  the  blame  where 
it  was  chiefly  deserved.  The  Saviour  also,  in  his  reply, 
addressed  himself  to  the  two  brethren,  and  not  to  their 
mother.  It  required  no  little  nerve  to  rise  up  among 
their  equals  in  the  family  of  Christ,  and  make  such  a 
request  in  their  hearing.  This  uninstructed,  unsanc- 
tified  ambition,  when  brought  under  control,  entered 
largely  into  the  Christian  characters  of  these  two  men, 
and  with  other  bold  traits,  no  doubt,  interested  their 
Master  in  them  in  no  ordinary  degree.  A  similar  dis- 
position in  another  disciple,  Simon  Peter,  made  him 
also  an  object  of  special  love  with  Christ.  It  was 
James  and  John  that  proposed  to  bring  fire  from 
heaven  upon  the  Samaritans.  That  they  were  far  from 
being  men  of  naturally  soft  and  gentle  dispositions 
appears  furthermore  from  this,  that  "  James,  the  son 


JOHN.  215 

of  Zebedee,  and  John,  the  brother  of  James,  he  sur- 
named  Boanerges,  which  is,  The  Sons  of  Thunder." 
These  men,  with  Peter,  were  the  Saviour's  most  inti- 
mate companions ;  they  went  with  him  to  his  trans- 
figuration, and  to  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane.  We 
therefore  see  that  the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved  had 
all  the  attributes  of  a  man.  Softness  in  a  man  may 
create  a  certain  degree  of  love  for  him  in  others ;  but 
the  highest  love  is  awakened  only  by  forcible,  manly 
qualities,  subdued  by  goodness.  It  is  not  sweetness 
of  disposition  which  makes  a  man  greatly  and  exten- 
sively beloved ;  it  may  be  so  with  a  child,  but  force  of 
character  is  essential  in  a  man,  and  though  occa- 
sionally excessive,  it  does  not  diminish,  but  rather  in- 
creases love.  Instead  of  sweetness,  a  man,  in  order  to 
be  greatly  loved,  must  have  something  in  his  character 
corresponding  to  a  subacid,  or  to  what  we  call,  in  cer- 
tain fruits,  a  pleasant  sour  ;  we  must  see  that  it  is  in 
him ;  he  must  have  grit  as  well  as  grace  ;  be  capable 
of  something  besides  pathos,  melting  moods,  repose. 
And  in  this  disciple  we  have  already  seen,  and  on 
further  examination  may  be  still  more  convinced, 
that  all  the  elements  of  a  manly  character  were  found 
in  him  in  right  proportions. 

There  is  no  sacred  writer,  not  even  Paul,  who  is 
more  bold  and  strong  in  his  denunciations  of  false 
teachers  than  the  apostle  John  in  his  Epistles.  With 
the  gentleness  of  a  child,  he  also  has  stern  authority, 


216  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

profound  contempt,  intense  hatred,  on  proper  occa- 
sions. His  organ,  indeed,  breathes  the  air  and  the 
treble  of  delicious  music ;  but  there  is  a  bass  there, 
and  a  swell.  They  who  supposed  that  leaning  on  Je- 
sus' bosom  made  him  effeminate,  found  to  their  cost 
that  his  anger  at  their  wickedness  was  more  like  the 
wrath  of  the  Lamb  than  that  of  any  other  apostle,  by 
reason  of  those  deepened  feelings  with  regard  to  truth 
and  error,  and  that  intense  love  for  the  souls  of  men 
which  communion  with  the  Saviour  had  created. 

One  thing  in  John  strikes  us  with  great  force,  not 
only  as  illustrating  his  character,  but  that  of  his 
adored  Redeemer.  Here  is  a  man  admitted  to  the 
most  familiar  love  of  Christ,  made  the  partner  of  his 
more  private  experiences,  his  bosom  friend ;  and  yet 
no  one  of  all  the  sacred  writers  has  so  much  as  he  to 
say  of  the  Godhead  of  Christ,  This  is  powerful  testi- 
mony to  the  divine  nature  of  Him  in  whom  dwelleth 
all  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead  bodily.  To  know 
more  of  him,  is  to  worship  him  with  the  more  rever- 
ence and  godly  fear  ;  familiar  intimacy  and  love  with 
regard  to  him  do  not  beget  lightness,  nor  tempt  to 
unsuitable  freedom  in  thought  or  speech.  When  he 
who  leaned  on  Jesus'  bosom  first  opens  his  lips  to 
speak  of  Christ,  instead  of  telling  us  what  favors  he 
had  enjoyed,  what  bliss  he  had  experienced  in  his  in- 
timacy with  him,  it  seems  as  though  he  could  not  re- 
press his  adoring  thoughts,  but  strikes  at  once  a  chord 


JOHN.  217 

worthy  of  Gabriel :  "  In  the  beginning  was  the  Word, 
and  the  Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God. 
The  same  was  in  the  beginning  with  God.  All  things 
were  made  by  him,  and  without  him  was  not  any 
thing  made  that  was  made."  There  must  have  been 
in  John  qualities  of  mind  and  heart  which  laid  the 
foundation  for  the  deepest  affection  on  the  part  of 
Christ. 

Himself  the  only  perfect  man,  his  judgment  of  char- 
acter, his  testimony  to  the  excellence  of  this  disciple 
will  assist  us  to  see  in  what  ways  and  on  what  grounds 
his  approbation  and  love  are  to  be  sought  and  expect- 
ed. Let  us  therefore  consider  a  few  things  suggested 
by  this  subject. 

1.  Faults  of  character^  which  are  the  result  of  strong 
passions,  should  not  discourage  us.  For  these  passions 
are  the  motive  power  or  the  driving  wheels  in  charac- 
ter ;  under  control  and  well  directed,  they  are  indis- 
pensable to  the  highest  forms  of  excellence.  James 
and  John  and  Simon  Peter  are  illustrations  and 
proofs  of  this.  But  where  the  faults  of  character  are 
of  a  different  kind,  where  they  are  defects,  or  deficien- 
cies, there  is  far  more  room  for  apprehension.  Want 
of  truthfulness,  meanness,  intense  selfishness,  are 
alarming  indications  that  there  is  as  yet  no  solid  basis 
for  a  good  character.  These  must  be  exchanged  for 
their  opposites  before  we  can  begin  to  possess  a 
character  which   even   men,  and,  which   is  of  infi- 


218  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

nitely  more  importance,  the  Searcher  of  hearts,  can 
approve. 

Another  thing  which  is  taught  us  here  is,  — 
2.  Christ  loves  character  as  well  as  piety.  Emo- 
tions without  good  character  and  its  fruits ;  to  say, 
'  Lord,  Lord,'  and  not  to  do  the  things  which  he  says; 
to  call  him  '  Saviour,'  and  to  dwell  upon  the  pathetic 
parts  of  his  character  and  life,  and  not  to  keep  his 
commandments,  must  be  revolting  to  him.  It  is  so  to 
us.  We  have  no  respect  for  the  feelings  which  people 
cherish  or  express  any  further  than  they  are  the  fruits 
of  goodness,  or  are  confirmed  and  sustained  by  a  good 
character.  We  serve  a  Master  who  is  to  be  the  final 
Judge  of  every  human  being,  and  will  render  to  every 
man  according  to  his  works.  "  All  the  churches  shall 
know  that  I  am  he  which  searcheth  the  reins  and 
hearts."  He  looks  beneath  our  words  and  forms.  We 
must  not  obtrude  upon  him  any  sickly,  hollow  expres- 
sions of  love ;  but  let  us  endeavor  each  to  be,  as  well 
as  to  do,  that  which  will  lay  the  foundation  for  his 
approval  and  friendship.  Character,  not  piety  alone, 
character  made  by  religion,  is  demanded  of  us.  Hear 
the  beloved  disciple  on  this  point:  "Hereby  do  we 
know  that  we  know  him,  if  we  keep  his  commandments, 
and  his  commandments  are  not  grievous." 

But  there  is  this  further  instruction  in  the  love 
of  Christ  for  John.  His  preference  of  John,  with 
his  contemplative  mind,  to  Peter,  teaches  that        %.^ 


JOHN.  219 

3.  Deep  reflection  and  feeling  are  greatly  appreciated 
by  Christ.  John  was  sufficiently  a  practical  man ;  he 
was  not  sluggish,  nor  tame  ;  he  labored  for  his  gener- 
ation, he  rebuked  the  sins  and  errors  of  his  day,  and 
suffered  banishment  for  his  zeal.  But  withal  he  was 
of  a  contemplative,  thoughtful  turn ;  things  in  the 
Saviour's  life  struck  him  deeply  which  are  either  not 
mentioned  by  the  other  evangelists,  or  are  passed  by 
with  a  brief  allusion.  That  last  conversation  and 
prayer  of  Christ  with  his  disciples  are  perfectly  con- 
genial with  his  habits  of  thought  and  feeling ;  we  see 
the  heart  and  mind  of  Christ  more  in  John  than  in 
the  other  evangelists  ;  their  writings,  as  one  expresses 
it,  are  history,  but  his  are  mystery.  The  thoughts,  the 
conversation  of  such  a  friend  must  have  been  grateful 
to  Christ ;  and  above  all,  to  such  a  listening  pupil  the 
Saviour  must  have  found  it  very  pleasant  to  speak,  for 
he  was  sure  to  have  in  John  one  into  whose  deep  heart 
his  thoughts  descended,  to  be  most  fully  appreciated 
and  reproduced.  Nor  was  he  disappointed.  John's 
Gospel  was  the  last  of  the  four  narratives  of  the  life 
of  Christ ;  and  without  disparaging  the  rest,  (for  they 
have  their  indispensable  use  as  well  as  peculiar  excel- 
lence,) in  certain  frames  of  mind  we  are  almost  tempted 
to  say  that  "  the  gleaning  of  the  grapes  of  Ephraim 
is  better  than  the  vintage  of  Abiezer."  We  are  like 
the  ruler  of  the  feast  at  Cana  when  he  said,  "  Thou  hast 
kept  the  good  wine  until  now." 


^/i 


220  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

We  must  not  take  John,  however,  as  a  model  man, 
after  whose  pattern  every  character  is  to  be  wrought. 
There  is  only  one  instance  of  perfect  human  character. 
But,  moreover,  there  are  men  of  different  and  almost 
opposite  good  qualities,  who  are  indispensably  useful. 
For  example,  John,  though  beloved  of  Christ  as  a 
companion  and  friend,  might  not  have  been  so  good  an 
apostle  to  the  Gentiles  as  Paul ;  yet  Paul,  whose  Ej)is- 
tle  to  the  Romans  John  could  hardly  have  written, 
could  not  have  written  parts  of  John's  Gospel  and  his 
Epistles  so  well  as  he.  Paul  himself  found  it  neces- 
sary to  reprove  the  favoritism  of  the  early  Christians, 
who  insisted,  some  that  one  character  and  teacher  were 
preferable,  while  others  were  equally  attached  to  dif- 
ferent instructors  and  a  different  tone  of  doctrine. 
Paul,  in  his  parable  of  the  members  and  senses  of  the 
human  body,  teaches  them  and  us  that  one  apostle 
can  not  be  exalted  as  a  model  above  another. 

4.  Christ  can  have  peculiar  affection  for  a  particular 
disciple.  We  are  not  in  his  view  like  the  long  and 
uniformed  ranks  of  soldiers  to  the  eye  of  a  military 
commander.  "  He  calleth  his  own  sheep  by  name,  and 
leadeth  them  out ;  "  he  knows  the  history,  temptations, 
trials,  secret  thoughts,  character,  and  conduct  of  every 
one  of  his  friends.  We  can  not  be  nor  do  any  thing 
which  is  right  but  he  appreciates  it  fully,  rejoices  in 
it,  and  will  encourage  and  reward  it.  True,  we  can 
not  write  a  Gospel,  but  we  can  be  the  Gospel  personi- 


JOHN.  221 

fied  by  its  influence  on  our  hearts  and  lives.  No  other 
disciple  has  just  the  opportunity  to  be  and  to  do  that 
which  belongs  to  each  of  us ;  if  faithful  in  our  few 
things,  we  shall  gain  the  approbation  of  Christ ;  if  we 
follow  him,  we  shall  be  with  him  where  he  is ;  if  we 
overcome,  we  shall  sit  with  him  on  his  throne. 

We  have  in  John  an  illustration  of  the  Saviour's 
power  to  honor  and  bless  those  on  whom  he  sets  his 
love.  Before  he  makes  them  honored  and  blessed,  he 
will  show  them  how  great  things  they  must  suiFer 
for  his  sake.  John  must  go  an  exile  to  that  bleak, 
inhospitable  Patmos,  a  picture  of  desolation  and  lone- 
liness, as  travelers  have  described  it ;  but  there  what 
honors  and  joys  await  him !  There  the  Son  of  man 
appears  to  him,  who,  when  parted  from  him  in  Galilee, 
left  on  his  mind  the  impressions  of  the  cross  and  the 
tomb.  But  now  he  comes  with  insupportable  glory 
and  majesty.  He  who  once  leaned  on  his  bosom  falls 
at  his  feet  as  dead.  "  And  he  laid  his  right  hand  upon 
me,  saying  unto  me.  Fear  not ;  I  am  the  first  and  the 
last ;  I  am  he  that  liveth  and  was  dead,  and  behold,  I 
am  alive  for  evermore,  Amen ;  and  have  the  keys  of  hell 
and  of  death."  Then  he  made  disclosures  to  this  be- 
loved disciple  of  scenes  and  things,  the  like  of  which 
had  never  been  revealed  before  —  the  whole  future 
history  of  time,  the  heavenly  world,  the  deeps  of  hell, 
the  final  day,  the  judgment  throne,  the  gathered  race, 
the  end  of  the  world.     All  these  he  was  inspired  to 

19* 


222  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

describe  in  language  which  furnishes  the  church  of 
God  on  earth  with  its  conceptions  of  the  things 
unseen  and  eternal.  He  closes  up  the  Bible  with  a 
book  which  is  the  western  sky  of  revelation,  at  once 
gorgeous  and  beautiful,  sublime  and  pathetic,  a  close 
and  a  foretoken,  a  seal  of  one  day,  but  full  of  signs 
for  the  next.  O  greatly  beloved  !  what  a  life,  what  a 
heaven,  what  an  eternity  are  thine !  We  go  back  and 
read  the  beginning  of  all  this  glory  and  joy  in  these 
simple  words :  "  And  Jesus,  going  on  from  thence, 
saw  other  tw^o  brethren,  James,  the  son  of  Zebedee,  and 
John,  his  brother,  in  a  ship  with  Zebedee  their  father, 
mending  their  nets ;  and  he  called  them.  And  they  im- 
mediately left  the  ship  and  their  father,  and  followed 
him."  This  leaving  all  for  Christ,  of  which  the  Sa- 
viour so  frequently  speaks,  this  prompt,  entire  sur- 
render of  ourselves  to  him,  brings  enduring  riches 
and  honor.  Some  who  hear  these  words  have  a  call 
from  Christ  like  that  of  John.  If  you  should  make 
Christ  your  Friend,  as  he  did,  see  in  his  history  what 
things  Christ  has  prepared  for  them  that  love  him. 

The  religious  views  of  such  a  man  as  John,  pre- 
sented in  a  condensed  form,  must  be  of  great  value. 
Such  a  presentation  he  has  given  us  in  three  Epistles. 
As  we  read  them,  we  see  what  things,  in  the  opinion 
of  such  a  man,  are  of  chief  interest  and  importance. 
We  remember  what  were  his  opportunities  to  gain 
instruction  from  the  fountain  head  of  truth.     As  we 


JOHN.  223 

consider  those  writings,  one  thing  which  is  interesting 
and  instructive  is,  that  this  disciple  wliom  Jesus  loved, 
this  '  perfect  man,'  as  we  must  regard  him,  in  the  scrip- 
tural sense  of  that  expression,  tells  us  in  these  Epis- 
tles, "  If  we  say  that  w^e  have  no  sin,  we  deceive  our- 
selves, and  the  truth  is  not  in  us."  "  If  we  say  that 
we  have  not  sinned,  we  make  him  a  liar,  and  his  word 
is  not  in  us."  Every  Christian  may  feel  stronger 
and  take  encouragement,  as  he  hears  one  who  leaned 
on  Jesus'  bosom  protest  that  he  himself  is  a  man  of 
like  passions  with  us. 

We  discover  in  John's  Epistles,  that,  in  his  view, 
love  is  the  sum  and  substance  of  all  Christian  duty. 
His  own  heart  is  filled  with  it,  and  even  to  old  age  it 
overflows  toward  his  adorable  Master,  and  to  his  fellow- 
men.  This  he  learned  in  the  school  of  Christ.  This 
was  the  eifect  of  the  Saviour's  love  to  him. 

"A  scholar  apt  thou  cam'st  to  be, 
And  loved'st  mankind  as  Christ  loved  thee." 

But  while  the  burden  of  his  Epistles  is,  "  God  is 
love  ; "  "  Behold  what  manner  of  love  the  Father  hath 
bestowed  upon  us ; "  "  Beloved,  let  us  love  one  anoth- 
er ;  "  no  Apostle  is  more  exclusive  in  his  feelings  and 
words  with  regard  to  false  teachers.  It  might  be  said 
to  him  as  Christ  said  through  him  to  the  church  at 
Ephesus,  "  I  know  thy  works  and  thy  patience,  and 
how  thou  canst  not  bear  them  which  are  evil."    "  But 


224 


CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 


this  thou  hast,  that  thou  hatest  the  deeds  of  the 
Nicolaitans,  which  I  also  hate."  The  tradition  that 
John  fled  from  a  public  bath  when  he  heard  that 
Cerinthus,  a  noted  heretic,  had  been  in  it  just  before 
him,  is  not  in  itself  improbable,  in  view  of  all  which 
he  says  respecting  '  antichrists,'  '  deceivers,'  '  them 
that  seduce  you,'  and  in  view  of  this  passage  in 
his  Second  Epistle :  "  If  there  come  any  unto  you, 
and  bring  not  this  doctrine,  receive  him  not  into  your 
house,  neither  bid  him  God  speed."  The  effect  of 
clear  and  strong  religious  views  in  this  Apostle  was 
to  make, him  abhor  false  teachers.  False  liberality  is 
not  only  cruel  in  its  effects  — it  is  a  bad  sign  in  us  ;  no 
man  can  have  true  apostolic  views  in  religion  and  not 
feel  strongly  against  error. 

What  is  love  to  God,  love  to  Christ  1  How  may  I 
know  that  I  possess  iti  Were  John  upon  the  earth, 
we  would  all  go  far  to  hear  him  answer  these  ques- 
tions ;  for  who  more  than  he  is  qualified  to  tell  us 
what  is  love  1  But  we  have  in  his  Epistles  a  definition 
of  love,  clear  and  concise.  It  is  in  his  Second  Epistle : 
"  And  this  is  love,  that  we  walk  after  his  command- 
ments." 

No  letter  ever  began  more  happily  than  his  Third 
Epistle,  in  these  words :  "  The  elder  unto  the  well- 
beloved  Gains,  whom  I  love  in  the  truth.  Beloved,  I 
wish  above  all  things,  that  thou  mayest  prosper  and 
be  in  health,  even  as  thy  soul  prospereth."     '  I  wish 


JOHN.  225 

that  you  may  be  as  happy  as  you  are  good.'  Few  of 
us  would  be  willmg  to  be  only  as  happy  as  we  are 
good.  These  words  are  full  of  meanmg  as  you  look 
on  the  sick,  leaning  upon  the  Saviour's  breast  and 
sweetly  regarding  his  word,  "  tarry  till  I  come : "  — 
"  Beloved,  I  wish  above  all  things  that  thou  mayest 
prosper  and  be  in  health  even  as  thy  soul  prospereth." 
Could  these  dear  friends  recover  and  dwell  among  us 
with  their  present  views  and  feelings,  what  hallowed 
places  would  our  families,  our  churches,  our  Christian 
circles  be !  Why  shall  we  Avho  survive  fail  to  live  as 
we  suppose  they  would  1 

"  For  us  they  languish,  and  for  us  they  die  ; 
And  shall  they  languish,  shall  they  die,  in  vain  'i " 

There  are  yet  those  who  lean  on  Jesus'  bosom ;  it  is  a 
place  to  which  every  soul  may  have  access.  One  in  a 
neighboring  town,*  whom  some  of  you  followed  to  the 
tomb  yesterday,  '  leaned  her  head,  and  breathed  her  life 
out  sweetly,  there.'  Her  last  articulate  words  were, 
"  Thy  kingdom  come."  Sublime  triumph  of  supreme 
love  to  God,  taking  the  place  of  the  selfishness  which 
sufiering  frequently  brings  with  it,  and  rising  superior 
even  to  natural  affection,  though  stronger  in  death  than 
ever.  We  must  take  the  religion  of  dying  beds,  the 
elevation  of  faith,  the  purity  of  love,  the  uniformity 
of  peace,  which  we  there  witness,  and  make  them  the 

*  Marblehead  :   Oct.  28,  1854. 


226  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

rule  and  manner  of  our  life.  We  must,  with  John, 
and  with  those  from  among  us  who  inherit  the  prom- 
ises, live  near  to  Christ  every  day,  by  walking  after 
his  commandments,  "  till  we  all  come  in  the  unity  of 
the  faith  and  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God 
unto  a  perfect  man,  unto  the  measure  of  the  stature 
of  the  fullness  of  Christ,"  "  and  grow  up  into  him  in 
all  things,  which  is  the  head,  even  Christ." 


SERMON  XI. 


THOU  SHALT  NEVER  WASH  MY  FEET. 


JOHN  XIII.  8. 


PETER    SAITH    UNTO     HIM,   THOU   SHALT     NEVEE    WASH     MY    FEET.      JESUS    AN- 
SWERED  HIM,    IF   I   WASH  THEE    NOT,    THOU   HAST   NO   PART  WITH  ME. 

These  words  relate  to  one  of  the  most  surprising 
acts  of  the  Saviour's  life.  So  incredible  did  it  seem 
that  it  excited  in  Peter,  who  seems  to  have  spoken  for 
the  rest,  a  feeling  of  opposition.  It  is  supposed  by 
some  that  in  washing  the  disciples'  feet  Christ  began 
with  Peter.  In  his  ardent  and  ready  Avay  he  resisted 
the  approach  of  Christ  as  he  came  to  kneel  before 
him  and  perform  the  act  which  none  but  menial  ser- 
vants ever  did.  Seeing  the  Saviour  proceeding  to 
perform  this  act,  it  was  the  natural  outbreak  of  his 
feelings  of  propriety,  "  Thou  shalt  never  wash  my 
feet."  Lesser  acts  of  condescension  and  kindness 
from  our  friends  sometimes  have  a  similar  effect  on 
us ;  our  sense  of  fitness  is  violated  when  some  who 
are  above  us,  or  for  whom  we  cherish  great  regard,  in 
the  fullness  of  their  love  perform,  or  offer  to  perform, 

(227) 


228  CI-miST  A  FRIEND. 

services  which  belong  to  other  hands  and  to  a  diiferent 
station.  Here  was  that  Lord  and  Master  whose  di- 
vine power  and  majesty  the  disciples  had  seen  when  he 
opened  blind  eyes,  healed  lepers,  cured  the  paralytics, 
raised  the  dead,  and  curbed  the  rage  of  devils  —  the 
great  Messiah,  the  Son  of  the  living  God,  the  Teacher 
to  whom  the  multitudes  had  listened  as  they  had 
never  listened  to  human  lips,  approaching  with  the 
necessary  preparations  to  wash  the  feet  of  Peter  and 
Iscariot,  and  the  other  disciples.  "  Then  cometh  he 
to  Simon  Peter,  and  Peter  saith  unto  him,  Lord,  dost 
thou  wash  my  feet  ?  Jesus  answered,  and  said  unto 
him.  What  I  do  thou  knowest  not  now,  but  thou 
shalt  know  hereafter."  This  was  not  enough  to  over- 
come the  instinctive  repugnance  of  the  disciple  ;  that 
repugnance  had  in  a  moment  grown  to  resolute  re- 
sistance. "  Peter  saith  unto  him,  Thou  shalt  never 
wash  my  feet." 

Are  we  not  sometimes  conscious  of  feelings,  and  do 
we  not  sometimes  notice  feelings  in  others,  not  unlike 
those  of  Peter  when  he  used  these  words  1 

We  have  perhaps  felt,  and  have  heard  others  say, 
that  God  can  not  be  supposed  to  regard  our  little 
affairs.  An  infinite  Being,  reigning  over  a  universe, 
a  great  God  and  a  great  King,  it  is  not  to  be  supposed, 
some  say  or  think,  that  he  can  hear  our  prayers,  or 
that  he  will  concern  himself  about  the  circumstances 
of  poor,  insignificant  creatures  like  us.     If  we  were 


THOU  SHALT  NEVER  WASH  MY  FEET.  229 

angels  of  his  presence,  we  might  expect  some  particu- 
lar regard;  but  how  can  we  suppose  that  he  will 
stoop  to  man,  '  that  is  a  worm,  and  to  the  son  of  man, 
which  is  a  worm  ? ' 

But  when  we  come  to  the  work  of  redemption  and 
salvation,  the  hearts  of  men  are  prone  to  suggest  fur- 
ther difficulties.  They  sometimes  object  that  the 
plan  of  salvation  is  incredible,  considering  the  dis- 
tance between  God  and  man.  That  the  "Word,  who 
was  God,  should  be  made  flesh,  that  He  who  made  all 
things,  being  made  flesh,  should  give  himself  up  as  a 
sacrifice,  that  human  guilt  should  be  atoned  for  by 
the  offering  up  of  his  body  once  for  all,  is,  wdth  some, 
too  much  even  for  faith ;  and  to  some  who  admit  all 
this  without  much  reflection,  the  gospel  which  con- 
tains these  mysteries  of  condescension  is  like  magnifi- 
cent fables  which  they  have  never  investigated,  having 
the  feeling  still  that  it  must  be  something  exaggerated. 
It  is  the  language  of  embellishment  —  of  a  glowing 
zeal  —  of  rhetorical  preaching ;  it  never  can  be  true 
in  a  literal  sense.  There  seems  to  be  an  impossibility 
in  the  nature  of  things  that  God  should  show  such 
love  and  condescension  to  men  ;  and,  having  come  to 
this  conclusion,  many  do  not  receive  the  gospel,  and 
for  that  reason.  We  have  met  with  some  who  ex- 
pressed the  wish  that  the  idea  of  the  gospel  could  be 
stated  to  them  in  a  more  simple  manner  as  to  its 
facts ;  for  the  representations  of  the  love  of  Christ  to 


230  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

men  which  they  hear  from  the  pulpit  they  can  not  but 
regard  as  far  beyond  the  truth.  \ye  should  all  prob- 
ably be  surprised  to  know  to  what  extent  and  in  what 
great  variety  this  feeling  exists  in  the  minds  of  many 
estimable  hearers  of  the  gospel.  The  preaching  of 
Christ  and  him  crucified,  with  its  representations  of 
love  and  compassion,  has  no  effect  upon  them,  for  this 
reason  —  that,  while  they  do  not  accuse  us  of  misrep- 
resentation, they  have  no  ideas  respecting  the  conde- 
scension and  love  of  God  to  which  these  representa- 
tions can  make  an  effectual  appeal.  There  is  yet  no 
staple  in  the  mind  to  which  this  link  can  attach  itself, 
and  therefore  it  is  that  the  preaching  of  Christ  and 
him  crucified,  has  so  little  effect  on  many  serious 
hearers.  They  do  not  feel  their  guilt  and  condemna- 
tion to  be  such  as  to  require  and  warrant  all  which 
has  been  done  to  save  them.  When  they  awake  to  a 
proper  knowledge  of  sin,  its  intrinsic  guilt,  its  conse- 
quences, and  the  natural  difficulty  in  the  way  of  par- 
don, all  the  condescension  and  love  of  Christ,  all  his 
sufferings  and  his  death,  seem  justified  by  the  worth 
of  the  soul  and  its  redemption.  It  has  never  become, 
as  yet,  a  part  of  their  knowledge  that  there  is  really 
any  such  feeling  on  the  part  of  God  and  Christ 
toward  sinners  as  the  gospel  represents.  This  knowl- 
edge, or  the  entrance  of  this  idea,  is  like  the  opening 
of  the  eyes  of  one  who  had  been  born  blind.  In  no 
other  way  than  this  can  you  account  for    the  total 


THOU  SHALT  NEVER  WASH  MY  FEET.       231 

insensibility  with  which  many  well-disposed  hearers 
listen  for  years  to  the  preaching  of  the  gospel.  They 
wish  to  be  instructed,  they  wish  to  believe,  they  wish 
to  be  saved.  You  wonder  why  they  are  not  at  once 
melted  by  the  story  of  a  Saviour's  love,  why  they 
need  to  hear  it  the  second  time  before  they  are  in- 
fluenced by  it,  and  how  they  can  hear  it  for  years  and 
not  be  moved.  The  reason,  let  it  be  repeated,  is  in 
many  cases  this  —  with  a  ready  consent  to  the  general 
truths  of  religion,  some  have  no  idea  of  the  condescen- 
sion and  love  of  Christ,  chiefly  because  they  do  not  feel 
their  need  of  such  compassion  as  the  gospel  describes, 
and  also  because  it  seems  impossible  for  the  great 
God  and  Saviour  to  have  such  feelings  toward  them. 
Therefore,  all  that  is  said  of  the  love  of  Christ,  and 
of  his  sacrifice  for  them,  is  hardly  regarded  by  them 
with  more  emotion  than  if  you  should  tell  a  young 
child,  for  example,  that  an  emperor  had  expressed  a 
strong  desire  for  the  child's  happiness,  or  any  other 
representation  which  the  child  can  not  appreciate, 
partly  because  it  feels  no  need  of  such  regard,  and 
partly  because  it  could  not  conceive  or  believe  that  a 
distant  and  great  personage  should  feel  any  concern 
about  a  child  in  a  foreign  land.  Thus,  with  many, 
the  infinite  compassion  and  love  of  God  and  Christ 
toward  them  is  something  of  which  they  have  never 
yet  felt  their  need,  and  therefore  concerning  which 
they  have  no  faith. 


232  CHRIST  A  FRIEND 

This  appears  in  a  still  more  striking  manner  in  the 
feelings  and  conduct  of  such  persons  when  they  are 
at  last  awakened  to  a  proper  knowledge  of  their 
sinfulness,  and  their  need  of  something  to  reconcile 
them  to  God.  It  is  known  to  every  one  who  has  ever 
seen  or  heard  of  such  cases,  how  long  we  seek  in  vain 
for  something  to  satisfy  an  awakened  and  guilty  con- 
science—  how  we  try  repentance,  and  reformation, 
and  prayer,  and  various  methods,  to  find  favor  with 
God,  but  in  vain.  The  complaint  is,  that  w^e  have 
not  felt  enough,  have  not  made  up  the  required  sum 
of  acceptable  feelings,  or  the  feelings  are  not  suffi- 
ciently pure  and  good ;  and  this,  too,  in  those  who 
have  always  listened  to  the  preaching  of  the  gospel. 
We  may  well  ask  why  they  do  not  recur  instantly  to 
the  free  pardon  procured  by  atoning  blood.  When 
we  are  sick,  and  know  what  will  cure,  we  think  at 
once  of  the  remedy,  and  resort  to  it.  "  Is  there  no 
balm  in  Gilead  ?  is  there  no  physician  there  1  "  Yes  ; 
and  the  sinner  has  heard  of  them  his  life  long.  The 
way  of  salvation  has  been  explained,  illustrated,  en- 
forced ;  but  he  tries  every  other  means  of  relief  before 
he  comes  to  Christ.  Still  he  does  not  understand,  it 
has  never  been  revealed  to  his  mind,  how  Christ  feels 
toward  him.  He  feels  guilty  and  unworthy,  and  he 
supposes,  naturally  enough,  that  God  has  the  same 
aversion  to  him  which  he  feels  to  himself;  and  the 
idea  that  the  Saviour  loved  him  and  gave  himself  for 


THOU  SHALT  NEVER  WASH  MY  FEET.       233 

him,  is  yet  beyond  his  apprehension ;  and,  generally, 
the  only  way  in  which  it  is  at  last  received  is,  the 
sinner  submits  to  God  without  knowing  how  God  can 
forgive  sin.  We  do  not  understand  the  way  of  justi- 
fication by  grace  through  faith  alone  till,  in  the  act 
of  complying  with  it,  it  is  disclosed  to  us  ;  "  for  flesh 
and  blood  hath  not  revealed  it."  The  Holy  Ghost 
takes  the  things  which  are  Christ's  and  shows  them 
unto  us.  Cowper,  in  his  experience,  expressed  this 
sinful  ignorance  of  the  human  mind  with  regard  to 
the  plan  of  justification  by  grace  up  to  the  moment 
of  unconditional  submission :  — 

"  Thus,  afraid  to  trust  his  grace, 

Long  time  did  I  rebel, 
Till,  despairing  of  my  case, 

Down  at  his  feet  I  fell ; 
Then  my  stubborn  heart  he  broke, 

And  subdued  me  to  his  sway  ; 
With  a  single  word  he  spoke,  — 

'  Thy  sins  are  done  away.'  " 

Thus  the  sinner  is  forced  to  believe  that  God  loves 
him,  and  that  the  Saviour  has  had  compassion  on  him, 
and  died  for  him  in  particular,  as  well  as  for  the  whole 
world.     "  Who  loved  me,  and  gave  himself  for  me." 

If  all  who  hear  the  gospel  with  a  serious  mind 
really  believed  and  felt  all  which  they  hear  of  the 
infinite  love  and  condescension  of  Christ  to  them,  the 
gospel  would  have  more  effect  than  we  now  witness. 

20* 


234  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

The  feelings  of  hundreds  would  be,  '  If  Christ  feels 
thus  toward  me,  and  has  done  so  much  for  me,  my 
guilt,  my  peril,  my  need  of  instant  help  is  infinite ; 
"  if  one  died  for  all,  then  were  all  dead,"  and  "  they 
which  live  should  not  live  unto  themselves,  but  unto 
him  which  died  for  them  and  rose  again."  Henceforth 
I  am  his.  Come  what  will,  I  hereby  devote  myself 
to  that  Redeemer  who  loved  me,  and  gave  himself  for 
me.'  Since  we  see  the  most  generous  impulses  excited 
in  the  minds  of  men  by  kindness  showed  to  them  on 
the  part  of  others,  how  is  it  that  the  Saviour  has 
done  so  much  for  every  one  of  us,  and  many  of  us 
have  never  loved  him  1  The  reason,  in  many  cases, 
is,  men  do  not  really  feel  that  Christ  has  done,  and 
felt,  and  suffered  for  them  in  particular  all  which  is 
declared  in  the  Scriptures.  It  seems  impossible  that 
the  Lord  of  life  and  glory  should  die  on  the  cross  for 
them ;  this,  they  secretly  feel,  is  not  to  be  believed. 
He  may  have  died  to  produce  some  great  government- 
al influence  in  the  affairs  of  the  universe ;  but  that 
he  loved  you  and  gave  himself  for  you  is  beyond  be- 
lief It  can  not  be  so.  "  Thou  shalt  never  wash  my 
feet." 

Peter  was  willing  that  Christ  should  teach  him  or 
employ  him  to  teach,  and  that  he  should  work  mira- 
cles to  feed  him,  and  to  pluck  him  from  a  watery 
grave.  But  to  kneel  before  him  with  that  water,  the 
Son  of  God,  with  his  garments  girded  so  as  conven- 


THOU  SHALT  NEVER  WASH  MY  FEET.       235 

iently  to  stoop  before  the  disciple,  and  then  with  his 
sacred  hands  put  water  on  those  sinful  feet  of  his,  and 
wipe  them  with  the  towel  wherewith  he  had  girded 
himself,  —  this  was  beyond  credulity,  beyond  sub- 
mission even  to  his  beloved  Master.  '  Teach  me,  heal 
me,  save  me,'  but,  "  Thou  shalt  never  wash  my  feet ! " 

And  it  would  not  be  strange  if  this  act  of  conde- 
scension on  the  part  of  Christ  has  appeared  to  us 
excessive,  or  that  it  should  have  done  violence  to  what 
we  are  pleased  to  call  our  feelings  of  propriety.  For 
among  the  wonderful  things  of  the  Saviour's  life,  it 
would  be  hard  to  point  out  any  other  which  is  suited 
to  awaken  more  astonishment  than  this.  We  are  not 
surprised  to  see  the  Prince  of  life  open  a  grave  and 
raise  a  dead  man  to  life.  But  to  see  the  Redeemer 
stoop  and  perform  such  an  act  as  we  find  described 
in  this  chapter,  is  a  height  and  a  depth  in  his  char- 
acter and  conduct  of  which  we  had  before  formed  no 
conception. 

Are  we  offended  at  him  for  it?  Do  we  secretly 
respect  him  less?  Do  we  turn  away  from  him,  unable 
to  understand  Avhy  he  did  thus,  feeling  that  it  was  a 
forced  act  of  condescension,  or  for  effect,  or,  at  least, 
with  a  feeling  of  repugnance  at  it  ?  How  apt  we  are 
to  let  our  notions  of  propriety  be  the  standard  of 
right  and  wrong.  How  fastidious  we  are,  and  how 
we  subject  God  and  the  Sa^dour  to  our  conceptions  of 
what  is  suitable.     We  have  yet  to  be  humbled  and 


236  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

abased  very  low  before  we  can  understand  the  char- 
acter of  Christ.  He  that  rode  into  Jerusalem,  sitting 
upon  an  ass's  colt,  meek,  and  bringing  salvation ;  he  that 
received  sinners,  and  ate  with  them ;  he  that  called  a 
wicked  publican  and  extortioner  from  a  tree,  and  before 
the  people  said,  "  I  must  abide  at  thy  house,"  —  acts  on 
principles  with  which  our  poor  notions  of  propriety  can 
not  square ;  and  we,  like  many  in  his  day,  are  tempted 
to  go  away  and  walk  no  more  with  him.  We  need, 
as  they  did,  to  hear  him  say,  "  And  blessed  is  he  who- 
soever shall  not  be  offended  in  me."  We  need  to 
accept  this  gracious  invitation,  "  Take  my  yoke  upon 
you,  and  learn  of  me,  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart, 
and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your  souls."  It  may  be 
said  with  truth  to  many,  You  are  not  willing  to  admit 
that  Christ  feels  towards  you  as  he  does ;  you  do  not 
in  your  thoughts  permit  him  to  suffer  and  die  for  you, 
as  he  came  from  heaven  to  do. 

Come,  then,  let  us  go  together,  and  look  into  that 
manger  at  Bethlehem,  and  see  the  mystery  of  the 
incarnation  —  God  manifested  in  the  flesh.  Feel  not 
that  you  condescend  in  doing  so.  The  multitude  of 
the  heavenly  hosts  have  been  there  before  you ;  their 
song  lingers  in  the  air,  "  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest, 
and  on  earth  peace,  good  will  towards  men."  Say 
now,  as  you  look  at  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  lying 
in  that  humble  state.  Was  it  for  you  that  this  is 
done  1    No,  you  are   tempted  to  say,  it  was  for  the 


THOU  SHALT  NEVER  WASH  MY  FEET.       237 

world.  Here  is  your  mistake.  That  life  was  mani- 
fested, that  babe  was  born,  that  God  manifest  in  the 
flesh  lies  there,  for  you,  and  for  no  other  more  than  for 
you.  The  feeling  is,  perhaps,  I  can  not  permit  this ; 
I  am  willing  that  this  should  take  place  for  the  world. 
You  must  be  willing  that  it  should  all  be  done  for 
you.  You  must  do  in  faith  to  that  infant,  that  which 
an  aged  saint  did  eight  days  after  in  the  temple, — 
in  the  exercise  of  faith,  you  must,  as  it  were,  take 
up  that  child  Jesus  into  your  arms,  and  say  with 
Simeon,  "  Mine  eyes  have  seen  thy  salvation." 

Go  with  me  again,  and  what  do  we  behold  ^  Three 
men  asleep,  and  at  a  distance  from  them,  beneath  those 
aged  olive  trees,  from  a  prostrate  form,  we  hear  this  cry: 
"  O  my  Father,  if  this  cup  may  not  pass  away  from  me 
except  I  drink  it,  thy  will  be  done."  An  angel  comes 
to  him  amid  the  darkness  of  the  night,  to  cheer  the 
intenser  darkness  of  his  soul.  Angel,  tell  us  why  it  is 
necessary  that  he  should  drink  that  cup ;  he  can  not 
bear  it ;  the  thought  of  it  convulses  his  frame ;  there 
at  rest,  there  on  the  ground,  there  in  the  cold  night  air, 
the  thought  of  it  makes  him  sweat,  as  it  were,  great 
drops  of  blood  falling  from  him.  Why  must  he  drink 
that  cup  1  The  answer,  as  true  as  any  which  could 
be  given,  is  this :  He  must  drink  it,  O  man,  for  you. 
This  is  the  burden  of  your  guilt ;  these  woes  are  part 
of  the  ransom  for  your  soul.  Are  you  willing  1  Shall 
he  drink  it  for  you  ] 


238  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

Stand  yet  nearer  to  a  more  affecting  scene.  That 
cup  is  at  his  lips.  They  have  scourged  him,  crowned 
him  with  thorns,  blindfolded  him,  buffeted  him,  led 
him  to  Calvary,  nailed  him  to  the  tree ;  he  is  dying. 
For  whom  is  he  dying  1  For  that  centurion  1  that 
scribe,  that  INIary  Magdalene,  that  man  with  the 
sponge  raising  it  to  his  dying  lips'?  No,  not  for 
them  any  more  than  for  one  who  was  to  live  eighteen 
hundred  years  after,  and  who  at  this  moment  hears 
me  put  this  question  to  him.  Are  you  willing  to  be- 
lieve that  that  death  was  all  for  you  1  Do  you  grate- 
fully acknowledge  this  1  Say  not,  It  is  for  the  world, 
and  not  for  me.  Where  do  you  expect  to  be  when  the 
world  is  at  his  bar  1  You  will  not  be  there,  perhaps  ? 
Surely  you  will  be  there ;  and  who  will  need  more  than 
you  to  hear  the  Judge  answer,  "  Come,  ye  blessed  ;  " 
whose  soul  is  more  precious  than  yours;  to  whom  will 
Heaven  be  more  than  to  you,  or  who  can  dwell  with 
the  devouring  fire,  who  can  dwell  with  everlasting 
burnings,  with  less  of  woe  than  you ;  and,  therefore, 
whom  of  all  our  sinful  race  shovild  God  love  rather 
than  you"? 

If  by  the  grace  of  God  we  could  awaken  in  the 
mind  of  any  one  the  feeling,  "  He  loved  me,  and  gave 
himself  for  me,"  if  you  would  sincerely  and  fully 
admit  to  yourself,  '  All  this  is  for  me,  as  much  as  for 
the  world ;  I  will  recognize  Christ  as  mine ;  I  will 
appropriate  his  coming  from  heaven,  his  agony,  his 


THOU  SHALT  NEVER  WASH  MY  FEET.        239 

death ;  no  one  shall  lessen  my  part  in  Christ ;  he  is 
all  mine,  and  I  will  feel  toward  him  and  act  accord- 
ingly,' —  we  should  hope  that  the  Son  of  God  had  won 
a  triumph  that  would  be  told  in  heaven,  and  repeated 
in  your  songs  of  praise  forever.  It  must  be  so,  it 
must  come  to  this  ;  as  you  will  feel  and  admit,  when 
you  consider  the  reply  which  Christ  made  to  Peter's 
unwillingness  to  receive  his  act  of  grace. 

For  we  may  consider  Christ  as  addressing  to  you 
substantially  the  reply  which  he  made  to  Peter,  "  If  I 
wash  thee  not,  thou  hast  no  part  with  me."  But  ob- 
serve here,  it  was  not  the  mere  washing  of  the  feet, 
of  course,  that  Christ  meant,  or  that  would  benefit 
Peter.  It  was  receiving  Christ  as  a  condescending 
Saviour,  signified  by  letting  Christ  wash  his  feet, 
which  was  to  save  Peter's  soul.  He  seems  to  say  to 
him,  'I  know  it  appears  to  you  great  condescension, 
that  I  should  wash  your  feet,  but  this  is  a  small  part 
of  the  lesson  which  you  are  to  learn  with  regard  to  my 
condescension.  I  shall  stoop  to  the  lowest  hell  to 
raise  you  up ;  no  tongue  can  tell  what  I  am  to  do  and 
endure  for  you,  what  sacrifice,  what  sufferings,  I  must 
bear  for  you.  Do  not  stumble  nor  be  offended  at  this 
washing  of  your  feet ;  this  is  nothing  to  that  which 
you  will  hereafter  see  and  feel  that  I  have  done  for 
you ;  "  for  what  I  do  thou  knowest  not  now,  but  thou 
shalt  know  hereafter."  You  must  submit  to  me,  and  to 
my  love  for  you ;  you  are  to  be  saved  through  infinite 


240  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

condescension ;  and  now,  if  you  begin  to  resist  my 
love  and  my  condescension,  when  I  come  with  this 
first  affecting  instance  of  it,  you  can  not  be  saved; 
"  If  I  wash  thee  not,  thou  hast  no  part  with  me." ' 

It  is  interesting  to  read  some  of  Peter's  words  in 
his  Epistles,  when  he  had  experienced  the  truth  of  the 
Saviour's  promise,  "  What  I  do  thou  knowest  not 
now,  but  thou  shalt  know  hereafter."  In  his  recov- 
ery from  a  grievous  fall,  in  the  kindness  and  love  of 
Christ  toward  him  after  his  resurrection,  and  on  the 
sea  shore  "  when  they  had  dined,"  in  the  fulfillment 
of  his  Master's  assurance  to  him  of  eminent  usefulness 
as  a  foundation  stone  of  the  Christian  church,  and 
in  the  wonderful  gift  to  him  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the 
Saviour's  name,  Peter  had  found  that  the  washing  of 
the  disciples'  feet  by  their  Lord  and  Master  was  no 
longer  to  be  regarded  with  incredulous  wonder,  nor  to 
be  resisted  as  transcending  their  ideas  of  what  was 
proper  and  right.  Subdued  by  the  gentleness  and 
consideration  in  the  Saviour's  treatment  of  him,  discov- 
ering, in  a  very  short  space  of  time  after  the  ascension, 
the  great  plan  of  forgiveness  through  a  suffering  Re- 
deemer, and  inspired  to  preach  Jesus  and  the  remis- 
sion of  sins,  he  saw  that  the  Saviour  kneeling  and 
washing  his  sinful  feet  had  been  so  far  surpassed  in 
his  experience  of  the  Saviour's  kindness  to  him,  that 
the  promise,  "  What  I  do,  thou  shalt  know  hereafter," 
was  most  abundantly  fulfilled.    So  that  in  his  Epistles 


THOU  SHALT  NEVER  WASH  MY  FEET.       241 

his  soul  glows  like  the  sky  into  which  the  sun  throws 
back  all  his  radiance.  "  Whom,  having  not  seen,  ye 
love  ; "  " the  precious  blood  of  Christ ;  "  "a  li-\dng 
stone  ;  "  "  chosen  of  God ;  "  "  he  is  precious ;  "  "  bare 
our  sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree  ;  "  "  Shepherd  and 
Bishop  of  your  souls  ;  "  "  the  just  for  the  unjust ;  " 
"gone  into  heaven,  angels,  authorities,  and  powers 
being  made  subject  unto  him ; "  "  to  him  be  glory 
and  dominion  forever  and  ever." 

We  are  to  spend  eternity,  if  saved,  under  a  dispen- 
sation of  infinite  love.  The  mind  is  lost  in  thinking 
what  manifestations  of  kindness  and  love  are  to  be 
made  to  us  in  heaven,  judging  from  our  experience  as 
Christians  in  this  world.  "  Beloved,  now  are  we  the 
sons  of  God,  and  it  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we 
shall  be."  This  act  of  Christ  —  his  washing  the  dis- 
ciples' feet  —  seems  to  have  been  the  opening  scene  in 
that  mystery  of  love  which  was  leading  him  to  the 
cross.  One  object  and  one  effect  of  it  was,  indeed,  to 
give  the  disciples  a  lesson  of  brotherly  love.  This 
was  a  subordinate  object.  The  narrative  is  introduced 
with  these  words :  "  Having  loved  his  own  which 
were  in  the  world,  he  loved  them  unto  the  end." 
We  were  made  and  redeemed  to  be  loved,  "  that  in 
the  ages  to  come  he  might  show  the  exceeding  riches 
of  his  grace  in  his  kindness  toward  us  through  Christ 
Jesus."  To  be  in  heaven  forever,  —  to  be  loved  as  the 
Father,  and  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Ghost  alone  can 


242  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

love,  —  to  experience  the  full  and  yet  growing  tide  of 
that  which  we  have  experienced  in  our  awakening,  our 
conversion,  our  progress  in  sanctification,  in  being 
Ivept  from  falling,  and  in  communion  with  God  here, 
will  be  an  eternal  weight  of  glory.  Will  the  love  of 
Christ  end  with  our  salvation  from  hell  ]  "  Having 
loved   his   own  which  were   in    the   world,  he   will 

love  them  unto "  O,  what  shall  we  say  ■?     There 

will  be  no  end.  "  O,  give  thanks  unto  the  Lord  of 
lords  ;  for  his  mercy  endureth  forever ;  "  "  who  re- 
membered us  in  our  low  estate ;  for  his  mercy  en- 
dureth forever."  He  who  began  his  peculiar  mani- 
festations of  love  by  washing  his  disciples'  feet,  and 
finished  by  dying  for  us  on  the  cross,  will  know  you 
personally,  speak  to  you,  love  you,  admit  you  to 
greater  intimacy  with  him  than  you  enjoy  here,  and 
do  things  for  you  which  will  express  a  love  and  kind- 
ness equal  to  that  which  was  expressed  in  washing 
the  disciples'  feet.  Well  said  the  beloved  John,  "  It 
doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be."  As  a  man 
of  immense  wealth,  about  to  be  married,  pours  upon 
his  bride  a  profusion  of  gifts,  searches  the  treasures 
of  France  and  Italy  for  something  worthy  of  his  love 
for  her,  spares  no  expense  in  fitting  up  his  mansion 
and  its  environs  to  please  her,  so  the  Lamb's  wife  will 
receive  from  her  Lord  expressions  of  affection,  the 
sight  of  which,  now,  would  make  us  feel  like  the 
Queen  of  Sheba,  when,  at  the  overpowering  splendor 


THOU  SHALT  NEVER,  WASH  MY  FEET.  243 

of  Solomon,  "  there  was  no  more  spirit  in  her."  You 
are  going  to  be  a  king  and  priest  unto  God.  All 
that  Christ  did  for  you  by  dying  will  be  exceeded  by 
what  he  will  do  for  you  by  his  life.  Recall  that  four- 
fold use  of  the  term,  "  much  more,"  in  the  fifth  of 
Romans,  where  Paul  teaches  us  what  the  past  history 
of  redemption  may  lead  us  to  expect.  The  love  of 
Christ  did  not  reach  the  last  climax  of  its  manifesta- 
tion when  he  died ;  there  is  more  to  come,  of  which 
his  death  was  only  the  beginning.  We  are  "  begotten 
again  unto  a  lively  hope  by  the  resurrection  of  Jesus 
Christ  from  the  dead  to  an  inheritance  incorruptible, 
and  undefiled,  and  that  fadeth  not  away,  reserved  in 
heaven  for  you."  These  are  the  words  of  the  man 
who  once  said  to  his  Saviour,  "  Thou  shalt  never  wash 
my  feet." 

The  word  of  Christ  is  true  concerning  each  of  us : 
"  If  I  wash  thee  not,  thou  hast  no  part  with  me." 
We  must  have  feelings  toward  Christ  responding  to 
his  feelings  toward  us,  receive  him  as  a  Redeemer, 
being  willing  to  confess  our  infinite  need  of  him,  and 
apply  to  him  even  for  those  feelings  toward  himself 
which  we  ought  spontaneously  to  cherish,  but  which 
it  is  our  deepest  shame  and  the  most  affecting  proof 
of  our  ruin  that  we  do  not  possess.  Pride  alone  will 
keep  us  from  thus  applying  to  him.  But  what  a  con- 
trast have  we  here  —  a  proud  sinner,  and  a  Saviour 
willing  to  wash  his  feet ! 


244  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

I  have  before  me  a  message  to  one  of  you  from  a 
dying  friend.  It  seems  to  me  the  most  affecting  mes- 
sage I  ever  heard  from  dying  lips.  I  shall  violate  no 
secrecy  if  I  deliver  it  in  public,  though  I  need  not 
mention  the  name  of  the  friend.  The  message  is  in 
these  words :  "  Do  this  in  remembrance  of  me."  * 

Is  this  all  1  I  hear  you  say.  Yes,  it  is  all  which 
will  be  of  any  lasting  interest  or  importance.  When 
you  see  that  dying  Friend  upon  the  great  white 
throne,  and  the  earth  and  the  heavens  flee  away, 
"  Do  this  in  remembrance  of  me "  will  involve  all 
that  will  be  of  any  consequence  to  you.  And  can 
you  slight  him  1  Shall  he  be  born,  live,  die,  rise 
again,  for  you,  and  must  he  plead  with  you,  or  need  to 
ask  you  more  than  once,  "  Remember  me "  1  You 
will  hereafter  and  forever  remember  him.  In  heaven 
he  will  be  to  you  "the  light  thereof; "  in  hell  your 
sorest  pain  will  be  that  you  remember  him.  Consider 
what  you  have  heard  ;  accept  him  as  he  stoops  to 
love  and  save  you.  Soon  he  will  stoop  thus  no 
longer,  but  must  lay  aside  those  signs  of  condescen- 
sion wherewith  he  has  girded  himself,  and  put  on 
robes  of  judgment.  Remember  his  word  —  "If  I 
wash  thee  not,  thou  hast  no  part  with  me." 

*  Communion  Sabbath,  November  6,  1853. 


SERMON  XII. 


PAUL. 


GALATIANS  II.  20. 

WHO   LOVED  ME,   AND   GAVE   HIMSELF  FOR   ME. 

The  friendship  of  Christ  would  seem  to  have  reached 
the  highest  possible  summit  in  this  world  in  the  case 
of  the  Apostle  Paul.  This,  however,  was  not  owing 
to  any  difference  in  the  natural  endowments  of  the 
Apostle  from  those  of  other  men.  When  natural  gifts 
are  joined  with  great  moral  qualities,  and  both  are  un- 
der the  influence  of  religion,  it  is  true  there  is,  in  one 
sense,  more  to  love  than  in  one  of  inferior  capacity 
and  acquirements.  But  sincere  piety,  in  connection 
with  humble  talents  and  attainments,  secures  for  its 
possessor  the  love  of  Christ  in  a  proportion  beyond 
the  mere  ratio  of  comparative  greatness,  as  men  would 
reckon  it ;  for  He  who,  looking  at  the  heart,  regards 
the  intention,  the  motive,  the  desire,  loves  a  humble 
woman  casting  all  her  living,  in  the  form  of  a  farthing, 
into  his  treasury,  with  an  affection  as  strong  of  its 
kind  as  that  excited  by  the  love  and  service  of  the 

21  *  (24.5) 


246  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

angel.  If  any  are  disposed  to  question  this,  we  may 
ask  if  they  have  ever  loved  a  little  child ;  and  if  they 
have,  whether  that  love  was  at  all  in  proportion  to  intel- 
lect or  attainments.  It  is  an  interesting  and  encoura- 
ging feature  in  the  grace  of  God,  that  the  degree  of  love 
which  we  excite  in  him  is  not  dependent  upon  natural 
gifts,  nor  upon  attainments  differing  with  circumstances 
over  which  we  have  no  control.  So  far  as  natural  gifts 
and  acquirements  enable  a  man  to  love  and  serve  God, 
so  far,  and  no  farther,  do  they  make  a  difference  in  his 
love  to  us.  Nothing  is  meritorious  unless  it  be  volun- 
tary. The  natural  gifts  which  God  bestows,  and  every 
thing  which  is  merely  the  result  of  accidental  advan- 
tages, confer  no  merit ;  but  the  voluntary  choice,  the 
heartfelt  consecration,  the  all-absorbing  love  excite  a 
corresponding  regard  and  love  in  him,  to  whom  the 
difference  in  understanding  or  learning  among  men  is 
of  small  importance,  but  who  looks  at  the  heart.  It 
was  because  the  Apostle  had  a  heart  which  swayed  his 
mighty  intellect,  and  brought  his  great  soul  into  full 
subjection  to  his  God  and  Saviour,  that  he  was  a  pe- 
culiar object  of  love  with  Christ.  As  a  Friend,  Christ 
appears  in  his  preeminent  excellence  in  connection 
with  him  whom  we  join  with  Peter  and  claim  as  "  our 
beloved  brother  Paul ;  "  for  if  we  but  love  and  serve 
his  Redeemer,  there  is  no  one  of  us  whom  this  great 
servant  of  Christ  would  not  be  happy  to  own  as  a 
brother  and  friend,  and  without  condescension  ;   for 


PAUL.  247 

these  are  the  words  of  his  adorable  Master  and  ours : 
*'  He  that  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father  which  is  in 
heaven,  the  same  is  my  brother,  and  sister,  and 
mother." 

There  are  three  things  which  set  forth  Christ  as  a 
Friend  to  the  great  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles.  One  is, 
The  forbearance  and  long  suffering  of  Christ  toward 
Paul  previous  to  his  conversion. 

The  Good  Shepherd  saw  that  wolf  in  his  fold,  with 
no  earthly  hinderance  between  him  and  the  entire  de- 
struction of  the  flock.  It  was  a  little  flock  —  a  flock 
just  gathered  from  a  waste,  howling  wilderness  ;  and 
for  their  inexperience,  well  might  we  call  them  a  flock 
of  lambs.  Every  thing  in  their  circumstances  was 
suited  to  awaken  the  tender  compassion  of  Christ, 
many  of  them  having  forsaken  all  things  to  follow 
him,  in  the  face  of  contempt  and  persecution.  Shall 
the  church,  purchased  with  his  own  blood,  perish  in 
its  infancy  1  "  Where  is  thy  zeal,  and  thy  strength, 
and  the  sounding  of  thy  bowels,  and  of  thy  mercies 
toward  her  ?  Are  they  restrained  ]  "  It  is  not  an 
injured  emperor,  his  throne  in  peril,  who  seeks  to  sup- 
press a  powerful  faction  ;  it  is  a  private  man,  arming 
himself  with  the  civil  and  spiritual  authority  which  was 
indeed  glad  to  find  such  an  instrument ;  and  gratifying 
his  vindictive  rage,  he  went  perhaps  as  far  as  any  in- 
quisitor even  of  the  Romish  church  has  ever  been 
borne  by  his  passion   against   heretics.     "  He  made 


248  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

havoc  of  the  church ; "  a  doom  was  on  every  head, 
panic  in  every  heart.  "  He  entered  into  every  house." 
The  sanctuary  of  home  afforded  no  protection ;  the 
family  circle  at  morning  and  evening  prayer  was 
broken  up  by  his  ruthless  presence ;  the  father  was 
dragged  from  his  knees,  the  mother  from  the  side  of 
the  child  kneeling  with  her,  to  prison.  He  "  perse- 
cuted them  even  to  strange  cities  ;  "  groups  were  seen 
consulting  in  haste,  at  the  places  where  several  roads 
met,  which  way  to  flee  most  surely  from  this  besom 
of  destruction.  "  He  was  exceedingly  mad  against 
them"  —  transported  with  rage,  furious,  heeding  no 
prayer  or  tears,  while  he  punished  them  in  all  the  s}ii- 
agogues  with  all  the  variety  of  torture  peculiar  to 
every  city  ;  and  when  they  were  put  to  death  he  "  gave 
his  voice  against  them  ;  "  and  more  than  this,  —  for  it 
must  have  been  their  sorest  affliction,  —  he  "  compelled 
them  to  blaspheme."  On  the  rack  and  in  the  flames, 
some  of  them  abjured  that  sacred  name  wherewith 
they  were  called,  their  forced  renunciation  of  their 
faith  in  many  cases,  no  doubt,  whetting  his  zeal  and 
confirming  his  persuasion  that  he  was  doing  God  ser- 
vice. The  witnesses  who  proceeded  against  Stephen, 
when  they  put  aside  their  upper,  loose  garments  to 
throw  the  stones,  laid  those  garments  for  safe  keeping 
at  the  feet  of  some  responsible,  prominent  individual, 
who,  in  this  case,  was  not  a  high  priest,  nor  the  ruler 
of  a  synagogue,  but  a  young  student  of  the  law,  whose 


PAUL.  249 

character  and  talents,  and  withal  whose  proficiency  in 
the  Jews'  religion  above  those  who  were  his  equals, 
made  him  a  centre  of  attraction  and  object  of  public 
confidence,  so  that  in  the  whole  excited  city  he  was 
marked  out  as  the  chief  accessory  in  that  martyrdom, 
by  the  confidential  act,  on  the  part  of  the  witnesses,  of 
laying  their  raiment  at  his  feet.  Making  good  the 
promise  of  his  early  zeal,  he  was  fast  hastening  to  root 
out  the  religion  of  Christ  from  the  earth ;  for  with  the 
disposition  which  he  every  where  found  to  help  him, 
and  the  unbounded  terms  of  his  commission  from  the 
high  priest,  and  considering  how  he  afterward  labored 
in  a  good  cause,  there  seems  to  have  been  nothing  but 
the  direct  interposition  of  God  to  save  the  infant  church 
from  utter  destruction.  All  this  time  He  who  loved 
the  church,  and  gave  himself  for  it,  needed  only  to 
speak  the  word,  and  summon  the  blasphemer  and  per- 
secutor to  his  bar,  and  give  his  people  rest.  However 
some  may  extenuate  his  guilt,  he  himself  is  the  most 
credible  witness  as  to  its  enormity. 

He  calls  himself  the  "  chief  of  sinners ;  "  he  as- 
cribes his  salvation  to  mere  "  mercy,"  and  regards 
himself  as  "  a  pattern  of  all  long  suffering "  on  the 
part  of  Christ.  Notwithstanding  the  history  of  his 
people  abounded  with  instances  of  fearful  judgments 
upon  bold  transgressors,  and  notwithstanding  his  sin 
was  aimed  directly  at  Christ,  and  he  was  doing  "  many 
things  contrary  to  the  name  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth," 


250  CHRIST  A  FRIEND, 

and  while  there  never  could  have  been  a  more  press- 
ing necessity  for  arresting  the  arm  of  a  persecutor, 
and  the  faith  and  patience  of  the  saints  could  never 
have  been  put  to  a  greater  trial,  yet  that  injured  Sa- 
viour, whose  love  for  his  friends  is  such  that  Nvhoso 
shall  give  a  cup  of  cold  water  only,  even  to  the  least 
of  them,  in  his  name,  shall  not  lose  his  reward,  spared 
this  offender,  interceded  for  him,  and  came  to  him 
at  length  over  the  mountains  of  his  transgression, 
to  make  him  his  friend. 

Nothins:  seems  to  have  affected  Paul  more  than  the 
Saviour's  long  suffering  toward  him.  He  could  not 
account  for  it  when  he  thought  merely  of  himself,  and 
therefore  he  says,  "  Howbeit  for  this  cause  I  obtained 
mercy,  that  in  me  first  Jesus  Christ  might  show  forth 
a  pattern  of  all  long  suffering  to  them  who  should 
hereafter  believe  on  him  to  life  everlasting."  But  if 
this  relieves  the  difficulty  in  the  mind  of  Paul,  it 
only  enlarges  our  view  of  the  long  suffering  of  God, 
seeing  that  his  purpose  in  this  instance  was  to  teach 
men  every  where,  and  in  all  times,  how  he  suffers  long 
with  great  sinners,  and  is  not  willing  that  any  should 
perish,  but  that  all  should  come  to  repentance.  Well 
may  the  prophet  exclaim,  "  Who  is  a  God  like  unto 
thee,  forgiving  iniquity,  transgression,  and  sin,  and 
passing  by  the  offences  of  his  heritage." 

In  Christ  as  a  Friend  to  Paul,  we  notice  further. 
The  method  by  which  he  was  arrested  and  brought 
to  repentance. 


PAUL.  251 

There  are  three  things  in  it,  each  of  which  is  re- 
markable. In  the  first  place,  Christ  arrested  the 
attention  of  Paul  by  putting  a  question  to  him. 
This  implies  a  treaty ;  it  says,  "  Come  now  and  let  us 
reason  together ; "  it  gives  the  offender  liberty  to 
answer  in  his  own  behalf;  "  declare  thou,  that  thou 
mayest  be  justified."  Was  this  done  in  the  case  of 
Belshazzar  1  The  hand- writing  on  the  wall  contained 
no  question,  waited  for  no  answer  ;  that  was  the  lan- 
guage of  doom ;  it  was  the  finger  of  despair.  To 
endure  the  impious  rage  of  this  blasphemer  so  long 
in  silence,  and,  when  that  silence  was  at  last  broken, 
to  break  it  with  a  question  addressed  to  him,  is  mercy 
which  is  above  the  heavens.     But, 

In  the  second  place,  the  Saviour  wrought  a  miracle 
for  Paul's  conviction.  The  light  at  midday,  above  the 
brightness  of  the  sun,  left  no  room  for  doubt  or  un- 
belief;  no  long  probation,  no  contest  in  his  mind, 
ensued ;  no  parable  was  uttered,  to  be  received  or 
rejected ;  no  prophet  met  him  with  a  threatening 
which  he  might  believe  or  spurn  ;  a  light  above  the 
brightness  of  the  sun  brought  instant  conviction  to 
his  mind.  This  \Vas  loving  kindness  and  tender  mercy. 
Yet  both  these  manifestations  of  goodness  in  the 
Saviour's  method  of  procedure  with  him  were  sur- 
passed by  this  :  — 

Thirdly,  Christ  used  the  language  of  remonstrance 
with  his  persecutor.     Remonstrance  among  men  im- 


252  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

plies  power  in  the  party  addressed.  We  do  not 
remonstrate  with  one  whose  will  is  in  our  control,  one 
who  is  subject  to  our  command.  It  also  implies  a  sense 
of  injury  on  our  part,  and  a  desire  to  be  redressed; 
reason,  instead  of  force,  is  employed  to  obtain  it.  The 
language  that  came  from  heaven  to  Paul  on  the  way 
to  Damascus  would  have  come  well  from  a  victim  in 
the  flames  to  his  tormentor ;  from  an  injured  wife  to 
a  cruel  husband  ;  from  a  pious  slave  to  a  brutal  mas- 
ter. David,  fleeing  from  Saul,  uses  the  same  tone  of 
address  which  the  Son  of  David  uses  in  speaking  to 
this  second  Saul.  "  And  David  said  to  Saul,  I  have 
not  sinned  against  thee ;  yet  thou  huntest  my  soul 
to  take  it."  So  spake  the  Lord  of  life  and  glory  from 
his  throne  to  his  pursuer :  "  Saul,  Saul,  why  perse- 
cutest  thou  me  1 "  He  pleads  with  him  ;  he  appeals 
to  him ;  he  leaves  it  wdth  him,  as  it  were,  to  say  if 
this  is  right :  Have  I  done  you  any  injury  1  AYill  you 
continue  to  be  my  enemy  1  There  is  that  in  God 
which  corresponds  to  humility  in  man.  We  fear  to 
use  that  word  to  express  it,  yet  there  is  no  other.  To 
read  the  prophets  and  hear  God  expostulating  with 
wicked  men,  justifying  himself,  asking  them  to  do 
him  justice,  is  enough  to  break  a  heart  of  stone.  No 
better  illustration  than  this  is  to  be  found  of  that 
great  truth  which  is  the  glory  of  the  divine  adminis- 
tration, the  perfect  free  agency  of  intelligent  beings. 
God  does  not  govern  us  by  force,  as  he  governs  the 


PAUL.  253 

seas  and  winds ;  he  treats  us  as  intelligent  and  free, 
and  therefore  appeals  to  us,  and  seeks  to  influence  us 
as  upright  men  do  their  fellow-creatures.  We  have 
this  principle  of  the  divine  government  illustrated  in 
its  full  power  in  the  treatment  of  Saul  of  Tarsus. 
"  Why  persecutest  thou  me  1 " 

In  a  single  word  of  warning  which  Christ  at  last 
addressed  to  him,  we  see  a  spirit  of  forbearance  and 
kindness  mingling  with  the  appeal  to  his  reason. 
Jesus  does  not  threaten  him,  but  suggests  trouble  and 
failure  as  the  result  of  his  conduct,  bringing  to  his 
thoughts  that  instrument  used  for  fortification,  the 
piece  of  timber  traversed  by  sharp  iron  points,  which 
stops  a  breach  in  the  wall,  the  cheval-de-frise,  and  he 
lets  Saul  see  himself  as  one  who  vents  his  rage  with 
his  foot  against  those  spikes.  Thus,  to  the  end,  mercy 
rejoices  against  judgment;  the  sun  makes  the  traveler 
to  Damascus  throw  away  the  garments  which  the 
wind  and  storm  would  have  made  him  keep. 

It  is  a  consideration  of  great  importance  that  the  first 
impressions  of  the  Saviour  on  the  mind  of  the  great 
Apostle  were  those  of  kindness  and  love.  If  an  ene- 
my is  to  be  subdued,  and  more  especially  if  you  expect 
to  be  on  terms  of  great  intimacy  with  him  afterward, 
it  is  all-important  that  the  way  in  which  he  is  subdued 
should  leave  nothing  to  rankle  in  his  memory.  Paul, 
therefore,  could  not  think  of  himself  as  frowned  upon 
or  spoken  to  with  severity ;  but  his  regenerated  soul 

S3 


2o'4:  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

waked  into  the  light  of  life  in  some  sense  like  Adam 
in  Paradise,  whose  first  moments  of  consciousness 
were  associated  always  in  his  mind  with  nature  bend- 
ing around  him  with  interest  and  love.  There  is 
infinite  wisdom  in  this  method  of  securing  the  future 
ardent  love  of  this  Apostle.  Who,  with  a  heart  even 
of  common  mould,  could  have  failed  ever  after  to  say, 
"  I  count  all  things  but  loss  for  the  excellency  of 
the  knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus  my  Lord,  for  whom  I 
have  suffered  the  loss  of  all  things,  and  do  count  them 
but  dung  that  I  may  win  Christ."  "  I  am  ready  not  to 
be  bound  only,  but  also  to  die  at  Jerusalem  for  the 
name  of  the  Lord  Jesus."     Once  more  :  — 

Christ  appears  a  Friend  to  Paul,  In  making  him  pre- 
eminently useful. 

Lie  employed  him  as  the  first  herald  of  salvation  to 
the  Gentile  world.  He  counted  him  worthy  to  suffer 
for  his  sake ;  and  it  is  not  every  one  who  can  be  trusted 
to  suffer.  But  Christ  was  such  a  Friend  to  Paul  that 
in  the  very  first  lines  of  his  commission  we  read,  "  I 
will  show  him  how  great  things  he  must  suffer  for 
my  sake."  The  description  of  his  sufferings  several 
years  afterward,  including  the  number  of  times  that 
he  was  beaten  with  rods,  stoned,  shipwrecked,  his  life 
in  peril  by  sea,  and  in  fording  streams,  and  from  rob- 
bers, and  in  the  wilderness,  and  in  the  city,  and  from 
false   brethren,   his   weariness    and    painfulness,   his 


PAUL.  255 

hunger  and  thirst,  his  watchings  often,  his  cold  and 
nakedness,  enough  to  appall  every  heart  where  love  to 
Christ,  which  is  the  strongest  of  all  passions,  does  not 
reign,  is  followed  by  saying,  "  I  take  pleasure  in  in- 
firmities, in  reproaches,  in  necessities,  in  persecutions 
and  distresses,  for  Christ's  sake  ;  for  when  I  am  weak, 
then  am  I  strong."  Eternal  sources  of  joy  in  heaven 
are  opened  to  him  in  his  consciousness  of  supreme 
love  to  his  Redeemer ;  nor  would  he,  for  all  the  honors 
of  earth,  part  with  the  recollection  of  one  of  his  great 
sufferings  in  the  missionary  cause.  He  tells  us  of  his 
crown.  "  Henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  a  crown 
of  righteousness,  which  the  Lord,  the  righteous  Judge, 
shall  give  me  at  that  day."  Paul's  crown  must  be  an 
object  of  great  interest.  Some  of  you  have  seen  the 
crown  of  the  British  monarch  with  the  royal  jewels. 
How  many  of  them  would  make  one  crown  of  equal 
value  with  his  I  How  many  British  realms,  how 
many  w^orlds,  would  buy  that  crown"?  Yet  see  the 
beautiful  humility  of  this  man.  He  seems  unwilling 
to  think  of  himself  as  a  crowned  head,  and  deprecat- 
ing that  distinction,  he  says,  "And  not  to  me  only,  but 
unto  all  them  also  that  lote  his  appearing."  There 
is  truth  as  well  as  humility  in  this ;  for  the  crowns 
of  all  who  love  and  serve  Christ  in  such  a  way  that 
they  "  love  his  appearing,"  will  leave  their  possessors 
nothing  to  desire  except  that  they  had  begun  earlier 
in  life  to  love  and  serve  Christ,  and  with  more  faith 


956  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

and  zeal  had  been  able  more  constantly  to  say,  "  The 
life  which  I  now  live  in  the  flesh  I  live  by  the  faith, 
of  the  Son  of  God,  who  loved  me  and  gave  himself 
for  me." 

We  have  entered  upon  a  theme  to  which  there 
seems  to  be  no  end  —  the  friendship  of  Christ  for  his 
servant  Paul.  He  appeared  to  him  so  many  times 
that  the  Apostle  speaks  of  the  abundance  of  the 
revelations,  standing  by  him  and  bidding  him,  "  Be  of 
good  cheer  ;  I  have  much  people  in  this  city ; " 
relating  to  him  his  institution  of  the  sacrament  of 
the  supper ;  inspiring  him  with  matchless  power  of 
reasoning  and  eloquence;  employing  him  to  write  a 
large  portion  of  the  Bible,  containing  the  most  im- 
portant exposition  of  the  doctrines  of  the  gospel; 
making  him  the  founder  of  churches ;  taking  him  up 
for  a  season  into  the  third  heavens,  as  though  he 
could  not  wait  for  the  time  of  his  decease,  but  must 
show  him  beforehand  his  own  glory  and  his  servant's 
future  joy ;  and  giving  him  in  the  Christian  church, 
throughout  all  ages,  the  name  most  honored  of  all  the 
followers  of  the  Lamb.  When  Christ  sets  his  love 
upon  a  man,  what  a  Friend  is  he !  "  His  favor  is  life ; 
his  loving  kindness  is  better  than  life." 

Now  that  we  have  considered  the  mighty  tide  of 
honor  and  joy  which  constitutes  the  history,  past, 
present,  and  future,  of  Paul,  let  us  for  a  moment 
stand  together,  or  rather,  like  the  men  who  discovered 


PAUL.  257 

the  sources  of  the  Missouri,  let  us  kneel  and  worship 
at  the  simple  headspring  of  all  this  greatness.  What 
is  it  but  this  ?  "  He  loved  me,  and  gave  himself  for 
me."  It  was  this  conviction,  and  this  alone,  "  Christ 
died  for  us,"  which  made  his  soul  one  whole  burnt 
offering  of  love  and  service  to  his  Redeemer. 

Our  talents,  our  situations,  our  opportunities  differ  ; 
but  in  one  thing  we  are  all  alike,  and  in  this  we  differ 
nothing  from  Paul  —  that  each  of  us  can  say  of  Christ, 
"  He  loved  me,  and  gave  himself  for  me ;  "  nor  was 
there  any  reason  why  Paul  should  love  Christ  as  he 
did,  nor  any  obligation  that  made  it  proper  for  him  to 
be  such  a  Christian,  which  does  not  apply  to  every 
one  of  us.  No  wonder  that  he  felt,  and  spoke,  and 
acted  as  he  did.  There  is  nothing  strange,  nothing 
pi'eternatural,  in  the  piety  of  Paul ;  for  if  we  only  be- 
lieved in  Christ  as  he  did,  —  nay,  if  we  only  felt  what 
we  really  believe  concerning  Christ,  —  we  should  all  be 
such  Christians  as  Paul.  There  have  been,  there  are 
such  Christians ;  it  is  a  reflection  on  the  grace  of  Christ 
to  deny  it ;  the  martyrs  loved  him  so  ;  the  Roman  am- 
phitheatre, the  stake,  the  dens  and  caves  of  the  earth 
have  witnessed  it ;  the  history  of  foreign  missions,  the 
private  experience  of  many  and  many  a  Christian,  fol- 
lowed by  the  consecration  of  his  whole  being  to 
Christ  and  his  cause,  have  proved  that  there  is  in 
Christian  hearts  a  love  to  Christ  which  is  stronger 
than  human  love,  and  stronger  than  death  —  a  love 


258  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

which    many    waters    can    not   quench,    nor    floods 
drown. 

It  is  interesting  for  each  of  us  to  look  at  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  Saviour  effected  our  conversion,  and 
see  it  marked  by  precisely  the  same  quality  of  mercy, 
the  long  forbearance,  the  suggestion  of  inquiring 
thoughts  and  relentings,  the  strong  conviction  of 
truth  and  duty,  the  appeal  to  our  reasonable  fears. 
Thus  we,  as  well  as  Paul,  were  "  apprehended  of 
Christ  Jesus."  Would  that  this  love  of  Christ  con- 
strained us  more.  We  must  not,  we  can  not,  wonder 
that  Paul  loved  his  Saviour  as  he  did.  We  only  won- 
der at  ourselves,  that  toward  this  same  Saviour,  who 
has  treated  us  with  the  same  forbearance  and  kindness 
with  which  he  treated  Paul,  and  to  whom  we  owe 
Paul's  whole  debt  of  gratitude  and  love,  we  should  be 
so  cold,  and  in  our  service  so  unprofitable. 

Of  those  who  have  heard  Christ  preached  so  long 
as  many  have  enjoyed  that  privilege,  and  seen  his  table 
spread,  witnessed  conversions,  and  known  the  whole 
accumulated  evidence  for  the  truth  of  the  gospel, 
there  is  no  one  who  is  not  at  this  moment  a  greater 
sinner  than  Saul  of  Tarsus  when  he  was  converted. 
"  Ignorantly  in  unbelief,"  was  the  palliation  of  his  sin ; 
but  who  of  us  can  plead  ignorance  in  rejecting 
Christ  1  He  verily  thought  that  he  "  ought  to  do 
many  things  contrary  to  the  name  of  Jesus  of  Naza 


PAUL.  259 

reth."  Do  you  consider  this  your  duty  1  He  truly  be- 
lieved Christ  to  be  an  impostor.  Do  you  1  Light 
from  heaven  above  the  brightness  of  the  sun  has 
shone  around  you  ;  a  voice  of  expostulation  has  often 
stopped  you  on  your  suicidal  way;  but  offers  and 
promises  of  usefulness  on  earth,  of  having  Christ  for 
your  Friend  here  and  in  glory  everlasting,  have  never 
forced  from  you  that  submissive,  self-consecrating 
word,  "  Lord,  what  wilt  thou  have  me  to  do  1 "  Paul 
has  joined  with  his  Saviour  to  make  you  a  Christian  ; 
there  are  in  your  possession  fourteen  Epistles  from  him, 
and  the  substance  of  them  is  this :  "  We  are  ambassa- 
dors for  Christ,  as  though  God  did  beseech  you  by  us : 
we  pray  you  in  Christ's  stead,  be  ye  reconciled  to  God." 
There  are  few  things  in  this  world  to  awaken  aston- 
ishment compared  with  this,  that  any  can  hear  their 
,  Saviour  preached,  and  not  have  such  feelings  toward 
him  as  will  bring  them  to  his  table,  and  send  them 
from  it  to  live  only  for  Christ.  But  instead  of  this, 
some  say,  '  When  members  of  the  church  are  such  as 
they  should  be,  I  will  be  a  Christian ; '  or,  '  I  shall 
fare  as  well  as  many  who  profess  to  be  better ;  '  or,  '  I 
never  like  to  speak  of  my  feelings  ; '  or,  '  Would  you 
have  me  profess  that  which  I  do  not  feel  1 '  or,  '  I  dis- 
like excitement ; '  or, '  Go  thy  way  for  this  time.'  How 
much  like  Paul  is  all  this !  So  long  as  we  feel  thus, 
his  heaven  and  ours  can  not  be  the  same. 

Nothing  but  the  power  which  conquered  Saul  can 


260  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

save  the  unconverted  of  a  Christian  congregation. 
Guilt  surpassing  his,  cries  for  vengeance  against  them ; 
but  one  word  from  an  injured  God  and  Saviour,  and 
their  trembling  spirits  will  pass  the  gates  of  death.  As 
Damascus,  with  its  premeditated  scenes  of  guilt,  was 
before  Saul,  so  guilt  and  ruin  only  are  in  the  path  of 
every  one  who  goes  on  still  in  his  trespasses,  and  de- 
liberately puts  off  the  claims  of  Christ.  But  he  was 
ignorant ;  and  as  you  are  not,  this  subtracts  greatly 
from  the  probability  of  your  being  saved.  There  is 
but  one  solitary  hope  that  some  of  you  will  be  saved, 
and  that  is,  the  sovereign  compassion  of  an  injured 
Saviour.  Left  to  yourself,  you  will  never  repent.  He 
does  not  leave  you  to  yourself;  for  even  now,  perhaps, 
you  are  moved  to  think  seriously  of  being  a  Christian. 
Is  not  Christ  virtually  speaking  to  you  from  heaven  *? 
What  a  career  of  glory  and  honor,  what  a  life,  what 
an  eternity  yours  may  be  if  you  become  a  Christian  ! 
It  was  because  Paul  became  a  Christian  that  he  can 
now  say,  "  I  am  what  I  am."  Had  he  not  become  a 
Christian,  he  would  have  failed  to  be  the  Apostle 
Paul ;  he  would  still  have  been  Saul  of  Tarsus.  For 
eighteen  hundred  years  he  has  had  Christ  for  a  Friend. 
Eighteen  hundred  years  are  before  you ;  will  you  have 
Christ  for  your  Friend  1  Eternity  in  heaven  or  hell 
awaits  you ;  will  you  make  Christ  your  Friend  1  Your 
final  Judge,  shall  he  be  your  Friend  ]  The  Man  of  Cal- 
vary, the  Saviour  of  the  redeemed,  shall  he  be  your 


PAUL.  261 

Friend  ]  Or  will  you  be  his  enemy '?  as  by  his  interpre- 
tation you  are  now,  since  "  he  that  is  not  with  me  is 
against  me  "  ;  or  will  you  be  his  friend  1 

If  you  ask,  '  What  must  I  do  V  say  not,  when  you 
hear  the  answer,  as  Agrippa  did  when  he  heard  the 
same  words  —  say  not,  "  Almost  thou  persuadest  me  to 
be  a  Christian."  Do  you  ask,  '  What  must  I  do  ] '  Let 
me  ask,  '  What  did  Paul  do  ] '  Here  is  the  reply : 
"  Whereupon,  O  King  Agrippa,  I  was  not  disobedient 
unto  the  heavenly  vision,  but  showed  first  unto  them  of 
Damascus,  and  at  Jerusalem,  and  throughout  all  the 
coasts  of  Judea,  that  they  should  repent  and  turn  to 
God,  and  do  works  meet  for  repentance." 


SERMON  XIII. 


STEPHEN. 


ACTS  VII.  59. 

LORD  JESUS,   KECEIVE  MY  SPIRIT. 

When  it  was  said,  last  Sabbath,  that  this  series  of 
discourses  on  Christ  a  Friend  would  be  closed  this 
morning  by  the  contemplation  of  the  dying  Stephen, 
the  text  being  then  selected,  and  much  of  the  sermon 
written,  little  did  we  think  that  the  text  and  sermon 
would  receive  appropriateness  and  illustration  from 
the  death  of  my  child.  On  each  of  the  four  Sabbaths 
preceding  the  last,  two  of  these  discourses  had  been 
preached ;  and,  but  for  the  accidental  presence  of  a 
friend  who  preached  for  me,  this  discourse  would 
have  been  delivered  last  Sabbath  afternoon.  Thus 
this  sermon  was  reserved  for  to-day.*  Were  it  not  for 
the  effect  upon  me  of  this  undesigned  coincidence, 
I  should  have  kept  silence  this  morning ;  but  the 
Saviour  and  Friend  of  my  little  child,  perhaps,  has  so 
ordered,  that  these  efforts  to  honor  him  and  commend 

*  November  26,  1853. 

(262) 


STEPHEN. 


263 


him  to  your  love  should  have  a  seal  of  his  approba- 
tion in  this  providential  conjuncture  of  circumstances, 
which  enables  me,  —  alas  !  at  what  bitter  cost,  —  from 
an  experience  which  they  only  know  who  have  felt  it, 
more  effectually  to  prevail  on  you  to  make  him  your 
Friend;  and  thus  that  sweet  prophecy  and  promise 
respecting  the  times  of  Christ  may  be  fulfilled  in  yon 
—  "And  a  little  child  shall  lead  them."  May  we 
but  persuade  you  to  love  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and 
thus  may  we  save  the  souls  of  o«ir  people,  let  us  suf- 
fer in  any  way  which  a  merciful  God  may  choose.  It 
is  a  trial  to  speak  in  public  with  excruciated  feelings 
of  that  which  has  made  us  suffer.  "  Though  I  speak, 
my  grief  is  not  assuaged,  and  though  I  forbear,  yet 
what  am  I  eased "?  "  The  appropriateness  of  the  text 
to  these  circumstances  constrains  me  to  make  this  ser- 
mon, which  was  mostly  prepared  a  week  ago,  enforce 
its  doctrine  by  preaching  it  to-day. 

Now  that  I  have  brought  myself  to  speak  of  this 
affliction,  hear  me  a  moment  with  regard  to  things 
suggested  by  it.  That  family  burying-place  now  con- 
tains an  infant's  grave,  by  the  side  of  another  grave 
where  the  mother  of  seven  of  my  children  sleeps. 
That  burying-place,  with  its  one  mound,  has  been  a 
solitary  spot  till  now ;  but  now,  "  two  or  three  are 
gathered  together  "  there  in  Christ's  name  ;  for  a  little 
child  seems  to  count  for  more  than  one  in  the  family 
and  in  the  grave.     Solitary  as  the  place  has  been,  who 


264  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

of  you  that  has  such  a  spot  has  not  found  it  a  place 
for  prayer  1  By  that  lone  grave,  what  may  you  sup- 
pose has  been  the  burden  of  my  soul  ^.  If  I  meet  cer- 
tain members  of  this  congregation  in  heaven,  I  will 
tell  them  for  whom  I  specially  prayed ;  but  let  me  say 
that,  kneeling  on  that  spot  where  I  expect  to  be  buried, 
I  have  found  my  thoughts  powerfully  drawn  from 
every  thing  else  to  this,  —  I  have  found  myself  pray- 
ing for  nothing  so  earnestly  as  for  this,  —  that  all  this 
flock,  calling  some  of  them  by  name,  might  be  saved 
in  the  day  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  If  our  afflictions  do 
not  make  us  selfish  and  contracted,  they  greatly  en- 
large our  affections  ;  we  love  those  who  have  suffered 
or  are  liable  to  suffer ;  and  if  God  has  sustained  us, 
■we  wish  "  to  comfort  others  with  the  comfort  where- 
with we  ourselves  are  comforted  of  God." 

Mental  sufferings,  moreover,  have  given  me  new  im- 
pressions of  the  holiness  of  God ;  his  power  to  inflict 
pain;  his  ability  to  look  on  and  see  us  suffer,  to  ac- 
complish his  purpose  of  mercy  or  judgment ;  the  infi- 
nite blessedness  of  a  state  of  reconciliation  and  love 
between  him  and  us  through  his  dear  Son ;  the  an- 
guish which  there  must  be  in  sufferings  which  are 
punishment,  and  not  discipline  ;  eternal  bereavements 
of  kindred,  especially  of  parents  and  children ;  the 
happiness  of  that  state  where  all  the  joys  of  which 
our  hearts  are  capable  here,  meet,  to  be  purified  and 
to  be  increased ;  and   the  terrible  meaning  of  those 


STEPHEN.  265 

words  of  Christ,  "  lose  himself  or  be  cast  away."  If 
in  yonder  burial-place  your  pastor  witnesses  the 
scenes  of  that  day, — 

"  When,  at  the  world's  last  session, 
The  dreadful  Judge  in  middle  air  shall  spread  his  throne  "  — 

4 

he  will  remember  how  he  prayed  for  you  there,  and- 
preached  to  you  here ;  how,  at  a  place  which  he  would 
have  supposed  should  have  absorbed  all  his  thoughts, 
he  strangely  forgot  his  grief,  and  besought  the  Lord 
that  he  would  give  each  of  you  repentance  for  your  sins 
against  God,  and  faith  in  the  Redeemer.  Those  pray- 
ers are  not  fully  answered ;  and  now  he  comes  from  that 
spot,  where  he  has  so  unexpectedly  stood  this  week 
with  his  household,  and  laid  the  youngest  of  that  flock 
to  rest ;  and  while  every  private  feeling  would  con- 
strain him  to  spend  this  day  in  silence,  he  feels  impelled 
to  speak,  by  the  hope  that  the  providence  and  grace  of 
God  may  have  designed  this  closing  sermon  on  Christ 
a  Friend  for  some  good  to  your  souls.  The  pastor 
who  officiated  at  the  funeral,  in  praying  for  my  people, 
was  pleased  to  speak  of  me  as  your  "  best  earthly 
friend."  I  never  felt  at  liberty  to  say  so  much  of 
myself;  but  my  heart  responded  to  this  appellation. 
What  is  there  in  the  religion  of  any  pagan  nation, 
or  in  the  Old  Testament,  like  the  relation  between  a 
Christian  church  and  pastor  1  For  twenty  years  this 
relation  has  subsisted  between  us,  and  on  my  part 

23 


266  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

nothing  is  left  to  desire  but  that  each  of  you  may  have 
*'  Christ  in  you  the  hope  of  glory,"  and  prove  it  by 
holy  living  and  good  works.  Our  relation  must  come 
to  an  end ;  but  these  Discourses  are  a  testimony  that 
the  best  service  which  I  have  thought  it  possible  to 
render  you  is,  to  promote  a  friendship  between  you 
and  the  Lord  Jesus. 


By  various  methods  of  illustration  the  Saviour  has 
appeared  before  you  in  these  Discourses  as  a  Friend. 
"We  saw  him  at  first  in  a  group  of  mourners  at  a 
grave,  and  so  afflicted  with  grief  that  the  spectators 
said  of  him  concerning  the  departed  friend,  "  Behold 
how  he  loved  him."  A  man  of  business  was  sitting 
at  his  accustomed  place.  Jesus  entered,  —  strange,  too 
strange  a  visitor  at  a  place  of  business,  but  the  most 
profitable  of  all  whose  feet  ever  trod  the  worn  floors 
of  such  places,  —  and  made  Matthew,  as  he  has  made 
some  of  you,  and  seeks  to  make  all,  follow  him.  The 
young  men  of  the  congregation  have  beheld  him  stop- 
ping a  funeral  train  to  raise  a  young  man  to  life  ;  and 
the  widow  has  seen,  in  his  pity  for  a  widowed  mother, 
a  sign  and  pledge  of  his  love  for  her  and  for  her  im- 
penitent child.  We  have  seen  him  treating  a  noto- 
rious publican  and  sinner  with  such  skillful  love  that, 
though  one  of  whom  it  is  said,  "  How  hardly  shall 


STEPHEN.  267 

they  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God,"  yet  when  Christ 
had  taken  possession  of  his  heart  and  his  house  by 
his  love,  he  stood  and  said,  '  Lord,  the  half  of  my 
goods  I  give  to  the  poor,  and  for  every  act  of  injus- 
tice fourfold.'  A  weak,  helpless  woman,  in  the  great- 
ness of  her  faith,  obtained  a  miraculous  cure  and  a 
place  in  the  sacred  Scriptures,  with  a  testimony  of  her 
Saviour's  commendation  and  love,  by  privately  touch- 
ing the  hem  of  his  garment,  and  putting  to  shame 
those  of  us  who  have  never  believed.  They  of  little 
faith  have  looked  on  as  by  wise  indulgence  the  Sa- 
viour persuaded  and  saved  Thomas,  and  then  pro- 
nounced a  blessing,  not  on  him,  but  on  those  who 
believe  before  they  have  seen.  The  afternoon  of  a 
November  Sabbath  was  seldom  more  dark  than  that 
in  which  a  goodly  number  of  you  who  were  able  to 
face  the  storm  saw"  a  vessel  in  the  fourth  watch  of  a 
tempestuous  night,  and  Jesus  coming  to  it  walking  on 
the  sea,  while  Peter,  impelled  by  love  to  go  to  his 
Saviour  amid  the  billows,  taught  us,  in  the  failure  of 
his  faith,  that  darkness  and  the  floods  of  great  waters 
afford  the  best  of  all  opportunities  for  the  triumph  of 
faith.  Not  as  a  mere  philanthropist,  who  could  ap- 
preciate nothing  but  suffering,  but  as  a  lover  of  truth 
and  good  men,  we  have  heard  him  say,  at  the  approach 
of  Nathanael,  "  Behold  an  Israelite  indeed,  in  whom 
is  no  guile."  Choosing  one  third  of  his  first  Apostles 
from  the  sea,  we  have  ventured  to  speak  of  him,  we 


268  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

trust  without  presumption,  as  the  Friend  of  that  most 
interesting  class  of  men  who  for  their  capabilities  of 
usefulness,  we  believe,  were  included  by  the  prophet  in 
"the  abundance  of  the  sea."  His  disposition  in- 
clining him  to  special  friendship  we  have  seen  illus- 
trated in  the  beloved  disciple,  from  whose  character 
we  have  learned  what  are  the  conditions  and  what  the 
influence  of  the  Saviour's  peculiar  love.  As  the  sac- 
ramental table  was  spread  before  us,  we  saw  the 
Redeemer  washing  the  disciples'  feet,  and  heard  him 
say  to  our  poor,  sinful,  proud  hearts,  which  are  nat- 
urally offended  at  his  condescension,  "  If  I  wash  thee 
not,  thou  hast  no  part  with  me."  The  great  Apostle 
to  the  Gentiles  has  appealed  to  us  for  his  Saviour  as 
his  Friend,  in  his  long  suffering,  his  kindness  in  the 
manner  of  his  conversion,  in  making  him  useful,  and 
thus  preparing  for  him  a  crown  which  will  never  fade. 
In  all  our  possible  need  thus  far  we  have  seen  what  a 
Friend  Christ  is ;  and  yet  it  may  be  that  to  many,  very 
many,  it  has  appeared  that  nothing  has  been  said 
coinciding  with  their  conscious  experience  or  wants. 
This  discourse  will  supply  the  deficiency.  We  are  to 
contemplate  Christ  as  the  Friend  of  the  dying.  I  say, 
supply  the  deficiency ;  for  whatever  else  we  may  not 
be,  we  shall  each  of  us  one  day  be  a  passing  spirit ;  "for 
we  shall  all  stand  before  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ." 

"  Lord  Jesus,  receive  my  spirit."     These  will  prob 


STEPHEN.  269 

ably  be  among  the  last  words  of  many,  if  not  of  all, 
in  this  assembly.  They  have  been  the  last  words  of  a 
vast  number  since  the  death  of  that  Christian  martyr 
by  whom  they  were  originally  uttered,  and  we  have 
all  either  heard  them  from  the  lips  of  the  dying  or 
have  read  them  among  the  last  utterances  of  many 
whose  death-bed  experiences  have  been  recorded. 
Whether  these  words  will  be  our  very  last  words  or 
not,  one  thing  is  certain.  Every  one  of  us  will  now 
confess  that  when  he  comes  to  die,  his  desire  is,  that 
the  Lord  Jesus  will  receive  his  spirit.  Is  there  one 
of  us  who  dissents  from  this  1  Is  there  one  that  is 
indifferent  to  it  1  Is  there  one  who  says,  '  I  will 
never  think  of  dying ;  let  it  come  suddenly ;  let  me 
not  know  when  it  is  coming '  ?  Were  there  no  here- 
after, we  might  thus  die  like  the  hunted  ostrich,  with 
its  head  alone  concealed.  But  let  it  not  be  true  of 
any  of  us  that  "  there  are  no  bands  in  their  death." 

In  seeking  to  illustrate  the  character  and  offices  of 
the  Saviour  as  a  Friend  to  the  dying,  several  things 
deserve  to  be  stated  with  special  distinctness. 

I.  It  is  commo7i  for  people  in  danger  and  in  death 
to  call  upon  Christ. 

While  it  is  true  that  if  Christ  be  a  Friend  to  the 
living  in  every  possible  variety  of  joy  and  sorrow,  in 
all  the  peculiarities  of  their  character  and  conditions, 
he  is,  he  must  be,  the  Friend  of  the  dying,  there  is 


270  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

this  difference  in  a  vast  proportion  of  cases  —  and  O, 
what  a  difference !  how  the  scene  changes,  how  the 
precedence  in  the  relation  is  altered,  in  this  respect,  — 
that,  whereas  all  our  life  long  Christ  called,  it  may 
be  said  of  multitudes,  when  they  come  to  die,  "  Then 
began  men  to  call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord." 

An  intelligent  sea  captain,  when  the  subject  of 
religion  had  been  mentioned  in  his  hearing,  asked  a 
friend  if  he  had  noticed  that  men  in  danger  of  their 
lives  frequently  call  on  Christ.  The  friend  replied 
that,  except  in  the  case  of  dying  Christians,  he  had 
not  been  aware  that  this  was  so ;  but  the  captain,  who 
did  not  profess  to  be  a  Christian,  replied  that  he 
had  often  noticed  that  sailors  in  their  extremity,  and 
when  prayer  was  forced  from  them,  used  the  name  of 
Christ,  calling  upon  him  for  mercy  and  help. 

A  man  of  great  wealth,  who  was  far  from  being  of 
a  religious  disposition,  brought  up  under  influences 
which  led  him  to  think  but  little  of  Christ,  was  draw- 
ing nigh  to  death.  He  requested  his  attendant  to 
leave  him  alone  for  a  little  while.  She  left  the  room, 
but  stood  near  and  within  hearing,  afraid  to  leave 
him  for  many  moments,  and  as  she  waited,  with  the 
door  partly  open,  she  heard  the  sick  man  break  forth 
in  a  most  affecting  prayer,  addressed  wholly  to  Christ, 
calling  himself  a  poor,  dying  sinner,  and  imploring 
mercy  and  help  from  the  Lord  Jesus  as  the  Saviour 
of  sinners. 


STEPHEN.  27 1 

It  is  well  authenticated  that  the  infidel  Voltaire 
in  his  death  struggle  called  on  the  name  of  Christ. 
David  Hume  played  cards  a  very  short  time  before  he 
died,  being  raised  at  his  request  from  his  sick  bed  for 
the  purpose,  as  he  said,  of  cheering  his  spirits  with 
that  amusement.  But  shortly  after,  the  cold  damps 
of  death  came  upon  him;  and  as  the  shadows  of 
departing  life  were  gathering  over  him,  and  he  drew 
near  to  the  invisible  world,  he  cried  out,  "  Lord  Jesus, 
help  me ;  Jesus  Christ,  save  me."  We  are  all,  perhaps, 
familiar  with  the  narrative,  so  well  confirmed,  respect- 
ing Thomas  Paine,  who  addressed  his  last  prayer  to 
the  Saviour  of  men,  crying  out,  "  God,  have  mercy 
upon  me ; "  "  Jesus  Christ,  have  mercy  upon  me." 

As  we  read  the  memoirs  of  Christians,  we  find  that 
the  words  of  the  Christian  martyr  in  the  text  have 
been,  to  say  the  least,  as  frequently  as  any  other  words, 
the  last  prayer  of  their  departing  spirits.  The  dec- 
laration is  well  established,  that  men  in  danger  and  in 
their  last  hours  very  frequently  commend  themselves 
to  Chiist,  and  appeal  to  him  for  help.  It  is  not  uni- 
versally so  ;  we  make  no  unlimited  statement ;  but  it 
is  a  common  thing  for  men  in  need  of  almighty  aid  to 
call  upon  the  name  of  Christ,  and  upon  him  alone. 

II.  The  twofold  nature  of  the  Saviour,  as  God  and 
man,  was  designed  and  is  suited  to  encourage  our  resort 
to  him  in  trouble. 


272  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

This  seems  to  furnish  the  explanation  of  what  has 
now  been  said,  that  men  so  frequently  call  on  Christ 
when  they  need  almighty  help.  We  see  in  Christ,  as 
it  were,  an  almighty  human  being.  In  order  to  be 
so,  he  must  have  two  natures ;  for  a  mere  creature 
can  not  be  endued  with  almighty  power;  a  mere 
human  person  can  not  be  in  all  places  at  one  and  the 
same  time.  The  prominent  impression  which  Christ 
makes  upon  us  is  that  of  a  man ;  his  human  nature 
strikes  us  at  first  rather  than  his  deity.  This  is  pur- 
posely so  ;  this  is  the  object  in  the  incarnation.  If  it 
were  otherwise,  the  incarnation  would  lose  its  effect. 
Suppose  that  the  deity  were  visibly  manifested  to  us 
by  an  effulgent  light,  and  beyond  it,  far  in  the  dis- 
tance, the  eye  could  just  discern  the  person  of  the 
man  Christ  Jesus  connected  with  this  effulgence. 
Such  an  arrangement  would  not  be  suited  to  our 
minds ;  we  need  that  something  comprehensible  should 
make  the  prominent  impression  upon  us,  sustained, 
however,  by  apparent,  obvious  proofs  of  deity. 

God  gave  the  church  in  the  wilderness  a  visible 
sign  of  his  presence  ;  it  was  a  sign  which  they  could 
bear  to  look  upon,  and  at  the  same  time  one  in  which 
they  knew  that  deity  was  enshrined.  It  was  a  cloud 
by  day,  which  turned  into  a  pillar  of  fire  by  night, 
the  inherent  brightness  in  it  being  eclipsed  by  the 
sun,  and  becoming  in  the  daytime  a  beautiful  cloud, 
but  giving  out  its  light  as  darkness  drew  on.     This 


STEPHEN.  273 

was  the  visible  place  of  Jehovah's  presence,  the  place 
of  that  Angel  of  the  Lord  who  is  called  by  Malachi 
"  the  messenger  of  the  covenant,"  "  the  Lord  whom 
ye  seek,"  or  the  Messiah.  Now,  this  cloud  was,  in 
some  sense,  in  those  days,  to  the  "Word,  who  was  in  the 
beginning  with  God,  and  was  God  —  this  cloud  was  to 
Jesus  Christ  in  that  age  what  the  human  body  was  to 
him  in  a  subsequent  age ;  the  cloud  was  one  of  the 
embody  in  gs  of  Christ ;  this  is  "  that  rock  which  fol- 
lowed them,  and  that  rock  was  Christ ;  "  and  thus  the 
divine  presence  was  adapted  to  the  senses  and  com- 
prehension, and  to  the  feelings,  of  men.  It  afforded 
every  pious  mind  aid  in  prayer.  As  the  worshipper 
stood  at  his  tent  door,  and  saw  the  cloud  lying  along 
the  sky  over  the  encampment,  or  when,  in  the  march 
through  the  desert,  it  sailed  along  before  the  host, 
turning  hither  and  thither  to  mark  the  path,  and  as 
the  sun  went  down,  this  beautiful  object,  with  its 
columnar  shape  to  distinguish  it  all  day  long  from 
the  clouds,  changed  into  a  pillar  of  fire,  shedding 
light  on  the  tents,  or,  if  necessary,  lightening  the  way 
through'  the  darkness  of  the  night,  every  one  can  see 
that  prayer  and  praise  were  made  easier  ;  that  however 
much  of  filial  confidence  and  love  a  good  man  may 
have  felt  toward  his  heavenly  Father,  this  sign  of  his 
presence  increased  it,  and  his  appropriate  feelings 
toward  that  dread  Being,  who,  while  he  is  a  parent, 
is  a  jealous  God,  and  terrible  in  his  doings  toward 


274  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

the  children  of  men,  were  soothed  by  it,  and  that  in 
trouble  men  were  more  ready  to  call  on  their  ever- 
present  God ;  in  moments  of  fear  and  trembling  on 
account  of  sin,  they  were  reassured  by  it  of  his  con- 
descending love ;  and  when  they  prayed,  they  must 
naturally  have  looked  up  at  the  cloud,  instead  of  at- 
tempting to  conceive  of  an  infinite  Spirit.  This  visi- 
ble sign  of  God's  presence  was,  no  doubt,  intended  in 
part  as  a  defence  against  idolatrous  worship.  Men 
have  always  been  prone,  since  the  fall,  to  make  objects 
of  religious  worship.  This  shows  that  the  human 
mind  craves  some  embodying  of  the  Deity ;  the  com- 
prehension of  infinitude  is  impossible,  all  attempts  at 
it  are  painful,  and  therefore  men  resort  to  graven  or 
molten  images  which  they  fancy  to  be  inhabited  by 
deities,  or  else  they  worship  the  orbs  of  heaven.  But 
the  constant  presence  of  that  cloud  by  day  and  pillar 
of  fire  by  night  was  intended  to  meet  that  feeling  in 
the  human  mind ;  and  it  certainly  took  away  all  ex- 
cuse for  idolatry  on  the  part  of  those  who  knew  that 
God  dwelt  in  that  cloud.  There  was  no  shape  in  it 
to  give  them  an  idea  of  God ;  they  "  saw  no  simili- 
tude," but  still  they  knew  that  he  was  there. 

In  the  fullness  of  time,  "  The  Word  was  made  flesh, 
and  dwelt  among  us,  and  we  beheld  his  glory,  the 
glory  as  of  the  only  begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of 
grace  and  truth."  Now,  for  what  purpose  was  the 
Word  made  flesh  ? 


STEPHEN.  275 

The  great  object  of  the  incarnation  was  the  suffer- 
ing of  death.  The  Bible  asserts  this  in  express  terms. 
"  We  see  Jesus,  who  was  made  a  little  lower  than  the 
angels  for  the  suffering  of  death,  crowned  with  glory 
and  honor."  The  expression,  "  a  little  lower  than  the 
angels,"  is  a  scriptural  term  for  human  nature.  Why 
was  Christ  made  a  little  lower  than  the  angels  for  the 
suffering  of  death  1  The  answer  is,  "  that  he  by  the 
grace  of  God  should  taste  death  for  every  man."  "  For 
this  purpose  was  the  Son  of  God  manifested,  —  that, 
through  death,  he  might  destroy  him  that  had  the 
power  of  death,  even  the  devil."  We  hear  the  pre- 
existent  Word  say,  in  communion  with  the  Godhead, 
"  Sacrifices,  and  offerings,  and  burnt  offerings  for  sin 
thou  wouldest  not,  but  a  body  hast  thou  prepared 
me."  "  By  the  which  will  we  are  sanctified  by  the 
offering  of  the  body  of  Jesus  Christ  once  for  all." 
The  body  of  Christ,  then,  was  for  a  sin  offering.  He 
was  made  flesh  in  order  that  he  might  die  for  sinners. 
This  is  the  plain  instruction  of  the  word  of  God  on 
this  subject,  and  he  who  denies  it,  or  breaks  the  force 
of  it,  takes  away  the  hope  of  the  world ;  there  re- 
maineth  no  more  sacrifice  for  sin. 

But  while  the  object  of  Christ's  incarnation  was  the 
"  suffering  of  death,"  there  was  a  parallel,  an  auxiliar 
purpose  in  the  incarnation ;  and  that  purpose  is  ex- 
pressed, not  to  multiply  quotations,  in  these  passages 
of  Scripture :  "  Forasmuch,  then,  as  the  children  are 


276  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

partakers  of  flesh  and  blood,  he  also  himself  likewise 
took  part  of  the  same  ;  "  "  It  behoved  him  to  be  made 
like  unto  his  brethren  that  he  might  be  a  merciful  and 
faithful  high  priest  in  things  pertaining  to  God." 

Here  we  see  brought  to  view  the  adaptedness  of 
Christ's  human  nature  to  the  necessities  of  men.  The 
cloud  and  pillar  of  fire,  the  "  glory  of  the  Lord,"  as 
the  symbol  of  God's  presence  with  the  prophets  and 
in  the  temple  was  called,  no  longer  conceal  the 
Deity ;  but  Deity  descends  in  the  person  of  the  man 
Christ  Jesus ;  "  The  Word  is  made  flesh,  and  dwells 
among  us." 

When  a  running  vine  appears  above  the  ground, 
the  watchful  hand  of  its  ow-ner  supplies  it  with  a 
small  trellis,  a  lower  rail,  to  aid  its  infantile  efforts 
in  ascending.  However  vigorous  that  vine  may  after- 
wards become,  it  can  not  stand  alone ;  it  needs,  and 
always  will  need,  something  on  which  to  cling,  and  as 
it  shoots  forth  you  must  supply  it  with  helps  accom- 
modated to  its  wants. 

The  human  nature  of  Christ  is  like  the  support  and 
helper  of  the  feeble  vine.  We  are  naturally  troubled 
at  the  thought  of  an  infinite  God,  unless  we  have 
blotted  out  from  his  character  every  thing  but  fond- 
ness and  made  him  nothing  but  a  doting  father,  who 
must  by  all  means  clear  the  guilty.  Especially  when 
we  are  sick,  and  are  drawing  near  to  the  presence  of 
Him  whom  no  man  can  see  and  live,  if  we  feel  any 


STEPHEN.  277 

thing,  we  feel  our  need  of  some  special  assurance  from 
God,  some  encouragement  to  faith.  Then  we  seem  to 
hear  Christ  speaking  to  us :  "  Let  not  your  heart  be 
troubled  ;  ye  believe  in  God,  believe  also  in  me."  He 
does  not  place  God  at  a  distance  from  us,  nor  come 
between  us  and  him,  as  a  defence  against  him :  on 
the  contrary,  he  enables  us  to  think  of  God  and  of  him- 
self identically,  fulfilling  his  words  to  Philip,  "  He  that 
hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father."  "  God,  who  caused 
the  light  to  shine  out  of  darkness,  hath  shined  into 
our  hearts,  to  give  us  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of 
the  glory  of  God  as  it  is  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ." 
Here  we  have  the  idea  of  a  disk,  which,  while  it  is 
small,  and  the  incomprehensible  orb  is  hid  behind 
it,  yet  is  the  only  means  by  which  that  orb  can  be 
usefully  seen  by  us.  Such  is  "  the  face  of  Jesus 
Christ."  Does  he  come  between  us  and  God  so  as  to 
interfere  with  your  relation  and  feelings  to  your 
heavenly  Father  ?  No  ;  God  by  him  '  shines  into  our 
hearts.'  Christ  is  one  whom  we  can  understand,  and 
who,  we  feel,  can  understand  us.  Besides,  we  remem- 
ber that  he  has  given  us  the  highest  proofs  of  love, 
because  he  has  died  for  us ;  and  he  is  represented 
every  where  in  the  Bible  as  a  condescending,  com- 
passionate Friend.  He  makes  the  prevailing  impres- 
sion on  our  mind,  notwithstanding  his  almighty  na- 
ture, that  he  is  a  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with 
grief.     There  is  nothing  of  state,  or  pomp,  or  wealth, 

34 


278  CHRIST  A  FRIEXD. 

or  learning  about  him,  to  make  us  feel  our  inferioiity ; 
he  makes  himself  appear  superior  to  us  only  in  his 
goodness  and  in  his  power  and  willingness  to  help 
and  save  us.  Could  we,  could  the  wisdom  of  angels, 
be  employed  to  devise  some  expedient  by  which  poor 
human  nature,  conscious  of  guilt  and  weakness,  should 
be  helped  to  conceive  of  God,  and  to  obtain  confidence 
in  his  feelings  toward  us,  we  could  not  have  devised  such 
a  plan  as  that  the  Word  should  be  made  flesh  and 
dwell  among  us,  that  he  should  be  born,  suffer,  weep, 
die,  and  then,  ascending  to  heaven,  say,  "  And  lo,  I 
am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world." 

III.  The  appeal  ivJiich  men  make  to  Christy  when  they 
are  in  7ieed  of  almighti/  helj),  is  a  proof  of  his  supreme 
deity. 

No  one  will  pretend  that  appeals  to  the  Virgin 
Mary  by  the  superstitious  are  parallel  to  the  prayer 
of  the  dying  Stephen ;  for  if  we  insist  that  they  are 
alike,  we  make  Stephen  an  idolater,  or  else  we  must 
deny  that  the  worship  of  the  Virgin  is  idolatry.  Dy- 
ing men,  moreover,  pray  to  Christ,  not  to  enlist  his 
influence  with  God,  but  as  the  source  of  supreme 
power.  This  is  one  of  those  indirect,  yet  conclusive 
proofs  respecting  the  character  of  Christ  which  se- 
cretly confirm  the  minds  of  men  in  their  investiga- 
tions. How  do  men  feel  toward  Christ  when  there 
is  no  previous  bias  of  the  mind  in  favor  of  any  par- 


STEPHEN.  279 

ticular  religious  opinions,  or  when  that  hour  draws 
nigh,  that  honest  hour,  when  the  soul  is  approaching 
into  the  presence  of  its  Maker  ?  Do  men  ever  appeal 
to  Christ  at  such  a  time"?  Yes.  Do  they  pray  to 
him  as  a  mere  teacher  and  example  ?  No.  How  do 
they  speak  to  him  1  They  pray  to  him  as  they  pray 
to  God.  There  is  no  act  of  a  human  being  so  solemn 
and  important  to  him  as  the  act  of  commending  his 
soul  to  an  unseen  hand.  But  a  most  frequent  expres- 
sion of  dying  Christians  is,  "  Lord  Jesus,  receive  my 
spirit."  The  same  prayer  which  the  man  Christ  Jesus 
uttered  on  the  cross,  "  Father,  into  thy  hands  I  com- 
mend my  spirit,"  is  used  substantially  by  dying  saints 
—  "  Lord  Jesus,  receive  my  spirit." 

You  can  not  account  for  this  on  any  other  supposi- 
tion than  that  there  is  something  in  Christ  which  war- 
rants and  encourages  the  confidence  of  men  in  such 
an  hour,  an  hour  when  all  which  is  precious  to  them 
is  at  stake,  and  when,  if  ever,  the  God  who  made 
them  is  needed  to  save  them.  We  should  suppose  be- 
forehand, in  view  of  the  plain  representations  of  the 
Bible  respecting  Christ,  that  it  would  be  so.  But  the 
supposition  is  confirmed  by  actual  events.  This  shows 
that  men  who  do  this  secretly  feel  that  Christ  is  al- 
mighty. Some  of  them  have  no  theory  on  the  sub- 
ject, no  religious  notions  to  support  by  doing  so  ;  they 
may  even  theoretically  deny  that  which  their  hearts 
profess;  for  spontaneously,  when  flesh  and  heart  are 


280  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

failing,  instead  of  calling  upon  the  Deity,  upon  God 
as  such,  the  language  of  thousands  and  thousands  has 
been  and  will  be,  "  Lord  Jesus,  receive  my  spirit."  I 
am  willing  to  build  my  hope  on  one  who  has  the  tes- 
timony of  dying  men  to  his  almighty  power ;  not  schol- 
ars, nor  wise  men,  nor  mighty  men,  but  dying  men. 
These  worship  Christ.  These  commend  their  spirits  to 
him.  Christ  is  God  to  me.  "  For  I  know  whom  I  have 
believed,  and  am  persuaded  that  he  is  able  to  keep 
that  which  I  have  committed  unto  him  against  that 
day." 

This  is  not  speculation.  It  is  something  in  which 
we  are  more  deeply  interested  than  in  any  thing  else. 
Your  dying  moment  —  what  importance  and  interest 
gather  about  it.  That  moment  i^  on  the  wing.  Your 
spirit  must  ascend  to  God  who  gave  it.  Thousands 
and  tens  of  thousands,  without  previous  concert,  but 
as  the  spontaneous  expression  of  their  feelings  in  that 
honest  hour,  have  used  this  as  their  last  prayer,  as  the 
world  receded  and  eternity  broke  in  upon  them :  "  Lord 
Jesus,  receive  my  spirit."  Into  whose  hands  should 
we  commend  our  souls,  but  those  which  were  nailed 
to  the  bitter  tree  for  our  advantaged  In  whom  are 
we  warranted  to  confide,  but  in  him  who,  because  we 
are  flesh  and  blood,  "  himself  likewise  took  part  of  the 
same,  that  through  death  he  might  destroy  him  that 
had  the  power  of  death  —  that  is,  the  devil "  1  This  is 
no  disparagement  to  the  Father  ;  the  Father,  Son,  and 


STEPHEN.  281 

Holy  Ghost  have  so  arranged  the  system  of  redemp- 
tion that  Christ  is  the  way  of  access  to  God.  This 
is  the  object  of  the  incarnation.  So  he  stands  and  re- 
ceives the  departing  spirits  of  all  believers.  Christ 
says,  "  I  am  the  door  of  the  sheep."  He  was  the 
door  to  Stephen  into  heaven.  He  has  been  the  door 
of  heaven  to  tens  of  thousands  since  his  day ;  and 
when  you  seek  admission  there,  among  your  last 
words,  if  it  be  not  the  very  last,  will  be  this  prayer : 
"  Lord  Jesus,  receive  my  spirit." 

We  speak  to  the  believer,  and  not  as  arguing  with 
an  unbeliever.  We  speak  to  all  "  who  have  obtained 
like  precious  faith  with  us,"  and  with  them  we  see,  in 
a  passage  of  Stephen's  dying  scene,  one  of  the  inci- 
dental, and  therefore  deeply  impressive  presentations 
of  the  Sacred  Three  in  the  Godhead.  "But  he,  being 
full  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  looked  up  steadfastly  into 
heaven,  and  saw  the  glory  of  God,  and  Jesus  standing 
on  the  right  hand  of  God."  The  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost,  in  whom  we  believe,  were  here  concerned  in 
an  act  of  condescending  love  to  a  faithful  servant  and 
dear  child.  The  history  of  redemption  in  the  apos- 
tolic times  more  fully  revealed  them,  and  their  names 
more  frequently  and  more  familiarly  occur  together. 
Instances  come  to  mind  within  our  Christian  circles 
in  which  the  deeply  afflicted  and  the  dying  have  had 
intelligent  impressions  of  communion  and  fellowship 
with  the  Three  together,  in  whose  name  they  were 


282  CHRIST  A  FRIEXD. 

baptized,  in  whose  name,  at  the  close  of  Sabbath  wor- 
ship, they  are  blessed.  Deem  it  no  impossible  act  of 
condescension.  The  manger,  the  cross,  the  tomb  show 
that  nothing  is  impossible  in  the  way  of  condescen- 
sion on  the  part  of  God  to  one  whom  he  loves. 
Christ  says,  "  My  Father  will  love  him,  and  we  will 
come  unto  him,  and  make  our  abode  with  him  ;  "  and 
if  with  this  we  believe  in  the  personality  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  we  can  not  doubt  that,  as  those  three  mysteri- 
ous men  came  to  Abraham's  tent,  so,  in  some  special 
seasons  of  his  Christian  life,  one  who  is  in  extremity, 
or  deeply  humbled,  and  full  of  faith  and  love,  or  near 
to  heaven,  may  have  thoughts  and  feelings,  with  regard 
to  the  Sacred  Three  together,  which  will  surprise  and 
delight  his  soul.  "We  should  more  commonly  seek  to 
think  of  them,  and  pray  to  them,  unitedly  ;  it  strength- 
ens our  faith  and  love  toward  them ;  we  worship  them 
connectedly ;  we  do  this  in  words,  in  our  doxologies, 
baptisms,  and  benedictions ;  we  should  oftener  reduce 
these  to  practical  experience. 

The  imputation  of  worshiping  three  Gods  we  can 
not  answer  to  the  full  satisfaction  of  an  objector,  as 
many  know  who  once  were  objectors,  and  to  whom 
flesh  and  blood  did  not  reveal  the  peace  of  mind 
which  they  now  have  in  connection  with  their  belief 
in  this  truth.  We  respect,  we  love  many  who  remon- 
strate with  us  against  tritheism,  as  they  view  it ;  but 
we  can  not  take  their  want  of  experience  as  the  meas- 


STEPHEN.  283 

ure  or  guide  of  our  Christian  knowledge.  Evangel- 
ical believers,  of  all  sects,  fellow  worshipers  of  the 
Sacred  Three  in  One,  can  not  explain  this  mystery; 
they  once  may  have  rejected  it ;  but  having  first,  as 
sinners,  "  fled  for  refuge  to  lay  hold  on  the  hope 
set  before  them,"  they  have  come  to  receive  the  Three 
in  One  as  they  present  themselves  in  the  Bible,  and 
to  our  Christian  experience,  with  their  divine  names, 
offices,  attributes,  worship,  and  works  ;  and  they 
leave  it  to  be  explained,  or  not,  in  heaven,  how  God 
is  One  and  Three.  If  there  has  been  a  time  in 
their  experience  when  they  have  had  peculiar  nearness 
to  God,  some  of  them  will  say,  perhaps,  that  it  was 
in  the  consciousness  that  the  Father,  Son,  and  Spirit 
were  making  impressions  upon  them  of  their  presence. 
The  work  of  redemption  alone  has  brought  to  view 
the  mystery  of  the  divine  nature,  so  that  nothing  is 
more  identified  with  our  spiritual  interests,  and 
therefore  with  our  private  experience  as  Christians, 
than  the  existence  and  agency  of  the  Father,  Son,  and 
Spirit. 

But  it  was  Jesus,  "  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,"  who 
caught  the  eye  of  the  dying  saint ;  and  therein  Christ 
fulfilled  one  great  purpose  of  his  coming,  which  was, 
as  we  have  seen,  to  give  to  the  eye  of  our  faith  and 
the  hand  of  our  hope  something  objective,  compre- 
hensible, in  connection  with  Deity.  This  teaches  us 
that   to   simplify  our  views  of  God,  to  make   them 


284  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

more  and  more  human,  to  conceive  of  him  more  as 
we  do  of  a  great  and  good  man,  is  most  in  accordance 
with  the  way  in  which,  by  his  own  phraseology  in  the 
Bible,  and  by  being  manifest  in  the  flesh,  God  teaches 
us  to  conceive  of  him. 

If  every  thing  else  becomes  simple  the  more  we 
know  it,  and  that,  too,  notwithstanding  it  expands 
and  grows  more  wonderful  the  longer  we  study  it, 
strange  indeed  would  it  be  if  the  greatest  and  best 
thing,  and  that  which  it  is  "  life  eternal  to  know," 
should  overwhelm  and  confuse  us.  To  prevent  this 
effect,  which  the  knowledge  of  God  might  have  upon 
our  perverted  minds,  God  was  manifest  in  the  flesh. 
Philip  expressed  our  natural  feelings  when  he  said, 
"  Lord,  show  us  the  Father,  and  it  sufficeth  us." 
That  seemed  to  be  the  summit  of  religious  attainment, 
to  have  a  definite  comprehension  of  God.  Christ  said 
that  to  see  him  was  to  see  God  —  that  all  in  God 
which  our  limited  faculties  could  comprehend,  or  our 
hearts  feel,  we  have  in  him.  "  He  that  hath  seen  me 
hath  seen  the  Father,  and  how  sayest  thou  then.  Show 
us  the  Father  1 "  What  trifling,  this,  with  a  disciple 
and  inquirer,  if  he  who  said  it  were  not  qualified  by 
identity  of  nature  to  be  a  substitute  in  the  mind  of 
the  disciple  for  that  idea  of  God  which  his  soul  was 
feeling  after.  We  can  not  imagine  a  creature,  how- 
ever exalted,  venturing  to  use  such  words.  It  is  safe, 
therefore,  to  bestow  on  Christ  all  the  feelings  which  the 


STEPHEN.  285 

soul  ever  has  toward  its  God.  It  is  God  who  weeps, 
and  pities,  and  makes  propitiation.  It  is  the  same  as 
though  the  Father  were  in  human  flesh.  Let  him 
become  flesh,  he  would  feel  and  speak,  he  would  act, 
as  Christ  did.  The  Father  does  not  stand  aloof  for 
Christ  to  persuade  him.  On  the  contrary,  Christ 
says,  "  The  Son  can  do  nothing  of  himself,"  nothing 
alone ;  "  the  Father,  that  dwelleth  in  me,  he  doeth 
the  works ;  "  so  that  all  those  works  of  compassion 
and  love  which  we  have  been  considering  in  these 
Discourses  are  the  works  of  the  Father. 

But  flesh  and  blood,  clothing  the  divine  nature,  en- 
courages our  approach,  helps  our  faith.  It  was  the 
sudden  presentation  to  Stephen  of  the  human  form 
of  Christ  amidst  the  radiance  of  heavenly  glory  which 
filled  him  with  such  sudden  rapture  that  he  forgot 
the  presence  of  the  council,  and  cried  out,  "  Behold, 
I  see  heaven  opened,  and  the  Son  of  man  standing  on 
the  right  hand  of  God."  Great  faith  angers  wicked 
men.  "  They  cried  out  with  a  loud  voice,  and  stopped 
their  ears,  and  ran  upon  him  with  one  accord,  and 
cast  him  out  of  the  city,  and  stoned  him."  And 
while  the  stones  were  felling  him  to  the  earth,  he 
said,  "  Lord  Jesus,  receive  my  spirit."  He  thought 
aloud  A  man  dying  by  stoning  would  hardly  have 
said  any  thing  by  way  of  argument,  or  merely  for 
impression  upon  others.  It  was  worship.  No  pri- 
vate place  of  prayer  ever  witnessed,  nor  did  the  be- 


286  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

loved  disciple  leaning  on  Jesus'  bosom  ever  experi- 
ence, greater  fellowship  and  communion  with  Christ 
than  Stephen  may  have  had  under  that  shower  of 
stones.  But  what  is  it  which  constrains  or  permits  a 
soul  passing  into  the  presence  of  its  God  thus  to  ad- 
dress its  prayer  to  Christ  ?  Is  it  wrong  ?  If  he  be 
not  divine,  it  is  wrong,  and  then  these  dying  Chris- 
tians are  idolaters ;  or  if  the  worship  paid  to  one 
creature  at  such  a  time  be  right,  how  can  we  ob- 
ject to  the  idolatries  of  the  llomish  church  ]  If 
we  may  worship  a  mere  human  son,  there  may  be 
reason  in  appealing  to  his  mother  to  intercede  with 
him. 

No  interpretation  of  Scripture  respecting  Christ 
explains  this  spontaneous  enthronement  and  worship 
of  him  by  human  hearts  in  the  hour  of  death  but 
that  which  gives  a  literal  meaning  to  such  words  as 
these  :  "  In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the 
"Word  was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God ;  and 
the  Word  was  made  flesh." 

Though  we  claim  that  reason  can  find  no  valid  ob- 
jection against  this  essential  truth,  and  though  reason 
must  judge  of  the  evidence  which  sustains  it,  still  a 
higher  power  than  reason  is  necessary  to  make  it 
congenial  to  the  heart.  "  Blessed  art  thou,  Simon 
Barjona,  for  flesh  and  blood  hath  not  revealed  it  unto 
thee,  but  my  Father,  which  is  in  heaven."  Far  be  it 
from  us,  in  saying  this,  to  represent  this  knowledge 


STEPHEN.  287 

as  unattainable  except  by  members  of  certain  sects  or 
the  defenders  of  a  creed.  It  is  the  free  gift  of  God 
to  every  one  who  feels  his  need  of  other  righteous- 
ness than  his  own,  and  submits  to  the  righteousness 
of  God. 

We  are  each  drawing  toward  the  solemn  hour 
when  the  test  of  our  faith  and  confidence  in  Christ 
will  be  applied,  and  we  shall  see,  and  others  will  see, 
with  what  feelings  we  habitually  regard  him,  and  what 
our  relations  to  him  have  been.  The  very  last  words 
of  Stephen  were  not  words  of  rapture  nor  of  triumph. 
This  is  encouraging.  No  difficult  attainment  is  held 
forth,  no  mysterious  experience.  Stephen's  dying  act 
was  a  prayer  —  a  prayer  to  Christ.  It  was  indeed 
a  prayer  of  faith,  of  confidence,  yet  still  a  prayer; 
but  to  offer  such  a  prayer,  at  such  a  time,  implied 
a  committal  of  the  soul  to  him  with  all  its  in- 
terests, which  Stephen  must  have  learned  to  make 
before. 

'  When  dear  friends,  when  children,  are  dying,  the 
everlasting  arms  are  under  us  if  we  have  faith  to 
think  of  the  Saviour  of  the  world  as  receiving  the 
departing  spirit.  At  such  a  moment  we  feel  a  strange 
disconnection  between  a  child,  for  example,  and  our- 
selves, as  though  some  one  had  come  in  and  supplanted 
us.     It  makes  us  feel  weak,  helpless,  sinful ;  impresses 


288  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

US  with  the  individual  accountability  of  souls ;  shows 
us  that  parent,  and  child,  and  friends  can  not  6ave 
each  the  other ;  and  then  the  thouglit  of  One  who  is 
able  to  receive  each  redeemed  soul  w^ith  a  personal 
love  and  care,  and  is  therefore  every  where  present, 
gives  us  adoring  thoughts  of  our  Immanuel,  God 
with  us.  Shall  we  fail  to  love  and  serve  Him  who 
saves  our  children,  our  dying  friends  ] 

There  are  other  separations  awaiting  many,  far 
more  intensely  painful  than  at  the  dying  bed.  When 
they  see  a  child,  a  companion,  with  Christ,  but  must 
themselves  go  away  from  Christ,  how  will  they  bear 
to  think  that  many,  very  many,  exhortations  were  ad- 
dressed to  them  for  the  express  purpose  to  make  them 
receive  Christ  as  a  Friend  ? 

There  is  an  hour  w^iich  is  more  important  even 
than  that  hour.  That  hour  is  noiv.  In  the  hour  of 
judgment,  every  thing  will  have  been  fixed  ;  all  which 
we  can  do  for  the  soul  wdll  have  been  done  or  left 
undone  forever.  The  present  hour,  therefore,  is  the 
most  important. 

You  may  have  occasion  for  Stephen's  prayer  too 
soon  to  admit  of  any  delay  in  coming  to  Christ.  How 
long  would  you  be  willing  that  Christ  should  post- 
pone an  answer  to  your  prayer  when  dying  1  Let  that 
be  the  measure  of  your  delay  in  doing  your  duty.  Re- 
ceive and  obey  the  call  of  Christ  with  the  readiness 


STEPHEN.  289 

and  earnestness  with  which  you  would  have  him 
answer  when  you  cry,  "Lord  Jesus,  receive  my 
spirit." 

Let  us,  then,  in  conclusion,  "  confess  with  the 
mouth  the  Lord  Jesus,"  and  say,  "AVorthy  is  the 
Lamb  that  was  slain  to  receive  power,  and  riches, 
and  wisdom,  and  strength,  and  honor,  and  glory, 

AND  BLESSING."  "  YeA,  THOUGH  I  WALK  THROUGH 
THE  VALLEY  OF  THE  SHADOW  OF  DEATH,  I  WILL  FEAR 
NO  EVIL,  FOR  THOU  ART  WITH  ME ;  THY  ROD  AND  THY 
STAFF  THEY-  COMFORT  ME."  "  UnTO  HIM  THAT  LOVED 
US,  AND  WASHED  US  FROM  OUR  SINS  IN  HIS  OWN  BLOOD, 
AND  HATH  MADE  US  KINGS  AND   PRIESTS  UNTO  GoD  AND 

HIS  Father,  to  him  be  glory  and  dominion  forever 
AND  EVER.     Amen." 

"  Head  of  the  church  triumphant,  . 

We  cheerfully  adore  thee  ; 
Till  thou  appear,  thy  members  here 

Will  sing  like  those  in  glory. 
We  lift  our  hearts  and  voices 

In  blest  anticipation, 
And  cry  aloud,  and  give  to  God 

The  praise  of  our  salvation. 

WTiile  in  affliction's  furnace. 

And  passing  through  the  fire, 
Thy  love  we'll  praise,  that  knows  our  days, 

And  ever  brings  us  nigher ; 

25 


290  CHRIST  A  FRIEND. 

We  lift  our  hands,  exulting 
In  thine  almighty  favor ; 

The  love  divine  that  made  us  thine 
Shall  keep  us  thine  forever. 

Faith  now  beholds  the  glory 

To  which  thou  wilt  restore  us, 
And  earth  despise  for  that  high  prize 

Which  thou  hast  set  before  us ; 
And  if  thou  count  us  worthy, 

We  each,  as  dying  Stephen, 
Shall  see  thee  stand  at  God's  right  hand, 

To  take  us  up  to  heaven." 


THE    END. 


THE   FRIENDS   OF  CHRIST 

m    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT: 

THIETEEN^    DISCOURSES; 

By  NEHEMIAH  ADAMS,    D.  D., 

PASTOR    OF    THE    ESSEX    STREET    CHURCH,     BOSTON. 

FIFTH      EDITION. 

John  P.  Jewett,  and  Company,     .     .    .117  WasHngton  Street. 
Price,  One  Dollar,    pp.  295. 

The  object  of  this  book  is  to  illustrate  faith  in  Christ,  and  love  towards 
Aim,  by  the  examples  of  those  who  befriended  him  when  he  was  on  earth. 

Contents.  —  1.  The  Wise  Men  from  the  East ;  2.  Simeon;  3.  John  the 
Baptist ;  4.  The  Bridegroom  and  Bride  at  Cana ;  5.  The  Twelve  Apostles  ; 
6.  The  Children  in  the  Temple ;  7.  The  Woman  with  the  Alabaster  Box ; 
8.  Martha  and  Mary;  9.  Simon  the  Cyrenian;  10.  The  Penitent  Thief; 
11.  The  Relenting  Crucifier;  12.  Joseph  of  Arimathea;  13.  The  Women  at 
the  Sepulchre. 

OPINIONS    OF    THE    PRESS. 
Puritan  Recorder,  Boston. 
A  rare  combination  of  various  learning,  forcible  reasoning,  graceful  diction, 
felicitous  illustration,  beautiful  simplicity,  and  pertinent  application. 

Boston  Traveller. 
Every  way  worthy  of  the  fine  taste,  superior  scholarship,  and  unaffected 
Christian  spirit  of  the  author. 

Boston  Christian  Watchman  and  Reflector,  (Baptist.) 
The  volume  belongs  among  the  best. 

Christian  Witness,  (Episcopal.) 
They  will  be  read  with  pleasure  and  profit. 

Zioii's  Herald,  (Methodist.) 

Conceived  in  a  delightful  spirit,  and  written  with  rare  ability  both  of  thought 
and  style. 

Boston  Congregationalist. 

Those  who  neglect  to  place  this  volume  upon  one  of  the  selectest  shelves 
of  their  library  will  miss  doing  justice  to  the  most  original,  most  affluent, 
and  most  useful  volume  of  sermons  which  the  American  press  —  at  least  for 
a  long  time  —  has  given  to  the  world. 

Notice  of  the  second  edition,  from  the  same. 
It  is  a  volume  that  will  live,  and  not  die,  and  as  long  as  it  lives  will  nourish 
and  develop  the  germs  of  piety.     The  portraitures  of  Christian  character  are 
so  accurate  and  finely  Mrought,  lifelike  and  natural  in  their  conception  and 
finish,  that  they  thrill  the  soul  continually. 

Boston  Christian  Examiner,  (Unitarian.) 
We  have  received  from  it  edification  and  instruction  of  the  most  precious 
kind.  .  .  .  We  have  noticed  many  admirable  features  in  this  volume,  ex- 
pressing some  noble  truths  in  chaste  and  eloquent  language.  .  .  .  The 
earnest  and  devoted  zeal  of  the  Christian  minister  to  commend  the  char- 
acter and  ofiices  of  the  Saviour  to  the  love  and  faith  of  human  hearts  is 
apparent  in  the  whole  volume. 


Boston  Daily  Advertiser. 
These  Sermons  Tirerc  listened  to  with  great  interest  wlicn  delivered,  and  the 
following;  opinion  of  them,  from  a  distant   country,  will,  we  doubt  not,  be 
responded  to  by  many  :  — 

Extract  of  a  letter  from  Rev.  James  Hamilton,  D.  D.,  London,  to  n  gentleman  in  Boston, 
February  8,  1853. 

'•  Many  thanks  do  I  owe  you  for  your  valuable  present  of  Dr.  Adams's 
Discourses.  They  are  at  once  so  sound  and  so  fresh,  so  solid  and  so  lively, 
so  full  of  instruction  and  so  practical,  that  I  am  sure  they  will  be  very  popu- 
lar and  useful.  Even  outwardly  it  is  a  noble  book.  A  London  publisher,  to 
whom  I  showed  it,  was  quite  struck  with  its  beautiful  typography." 

New  York  Evangelist. 
The  beauty  of  style,  tenderness  of  feeling,  and  richness  of  doctrinal  and 
experimental  truth  which  the  Discourses  display,  are  of  high  order.    Some  of 
the  portraitures  of  character  are   exquisite,  and   the   hand  of  the  artist  is 
visible  in  all. 

New  York  Journal  of  Commerce. 

They  enrich  and  adorn  our  Christian  literature.  "We  have  to  ascribe  it  to 
the  fine  creative  talent  of  the  preacher  that  these  examples  of  faith  and  love 
toward  Christ  are  reproduced  in  the  full  power  of  their  actual  life  and 
beauty. 

New  York  Observer. 

Greatly  refreshed  and  strengthened  have  we  been  by  the  perusal  of  these 
Sermons.  Fragrant  with  the  gentle  spirit  of  tlie  gospel,  they  are  eminently 
fitted  to  mould  and  improve  the  character,  while  they  inspire  the  earnest  senti- 
ments of  devotion  in  the  heart. 

New  York  Independent. 

This  beautiful  volume  will  become  a  favorite  in  very  many  Christian  familie-i. 

We  can  suggest  no  book  more  appropriate  than  this  to  those  who  would 
supply  themselves  with  a  choice  and  fragrant  alabaster  box  of  religious  in- 
struction, or  who  would  give  such  to  their  friends. 

Portland  Christian  Mirror. 
A  happy  conception,  this  series  of  Discourses,  and  as  happily  executed 
Without  atfectation  or  bluster,  they  quietly  find  their  way  to  the  conscience 
and  the  heart.  You  find  within  yon  meltings  of  spirit,  yearnings  of  heart, 
without  any  forewarnings  of  such  eftects.  It  is  a  precious  family  book ;  a 
treasure  to  any  member  of  the  family  of  Christ. 

New  York  Correspondent  of  Puritan  Recorder. 
Through  the  kindness  of  a  friend  in  Boston,  your  correspondent  has  en 
joyed  the  privilege  of  reading  the  "  Friends  of  Christ  in  the  New  Testament." 
a' book  so  rich  in  evangelical  truth,  so  full  of  graphic  descriptions  of  Scrip- 
ture scenes,  and  so  admirable  in  its  tone  of  Christian  feeling,  must  be,  sooner 
or  later,  widely  read. 

Philadelphia  Christian  Observer. 

A  beautiful  book  in  every  respect  —  able,  rich  in  thought,  eloquent  in  the 
best  sense  of  the  term,  commending  the  truth  in  holy  beauty.  Those  who 
dare  not  encounter  the  reading  of  a  volume  of  sermons  will  not  be  likely 
to  lay  this  book  aside  unread. 

Western  Christian  Advocate,  [Cincinnati,  0.) 
The  work  is  possessed  of  superior  merit. 

Dibliotheca  Sacra,  (Andover.) 
These  themes  have  the  charm  of  novelty.     They  are  treated  with  an  origi- 
nality, an  unction,  an  inwardness  of  spirit,  which  in  these  days  of  common- 
place and  outwardness  make  one's  soul  to  come  again. 


..V/' 


!  'i* 


I:    M 


E^^?iS:th.teen  discourses 

p,„ee,on  Theological  Sem,nary-Speerbbrary 


M'' 


;i|n    j  i!;ii|ii;ii!iiiiiiiii 


